Valverde claims stage 2 of Tour of Catalonia

MADRID, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) won a bunch sprint to win the second stage of the Volta de Catalunya (Tour of Catalonia) cycle race on Tuesday.

The overall winner of the 2017 race appeared from virtually nowhere to win a rapid finish in the town of Valls following a 175.6 kilometer stage.

The majority of the stage was raced into a headwind over rolling countryside and saw the main peloton happy to allow a three man breakaway lead the field, perhaps looking to save energy for Wednesday's more testing stage.

However, the pace picked up over the last 40 kilometers and a second category climb which began 15 kilometers from the finish saw Valverde's team work hard to keep the pace high and drop some of the specialist sprinters, such as Monday's stage one winner, Alvaro Hodeg from, the peloton.

Valverde finished ahead of Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) and Jay McCarthy (Bora- Hansgrohe) and thanks to the time bonuses for winning the stage and finishing second in the last intermediate sprint of the day, he also takes the jersey for the overall race leader.

The 'Volta' is one of the most important early season stage races in the cycling calendar and is often used by riders looking for form for the spring classics in Belgium and the Giro de Italia in May.

Wednesday's third stage is a difficult 199 kilometers beginning in San Cugat de Vallees to Vallter 2000 and ends with a tough first category climb, which should produce important time differences and make clear who the favorites are of the overall title when the race finishes in Barcelona on Sunday. Enditem