(Image credit: Getty Images) The Brits continued to pay homage to Catalonia on Tuesday, as Ethan Vernon (Israel-Premier Tech) outsprinted Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike) to win his first race of the season.
Vernon, who earned his first professional win at the Volta a Catalunya in 2022 , was the fastest in Figueres on stage two, holding off the opening day’s teenage winner .
The finale played out on fast, wide roads, with Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) leading the sprint around a right-bending finishing straight. Vernon then came around the outside, stretching out an advantage and winning by a wheel’s length.
“I’m starting to like this race. It’s bringing some good memories,” the 24-year-old smiled afterwards.
“We came with momentum about 2km to go, with a full train, and we set up perfectly for the end. It was really chaotic. I think we must have been going 80km/h plus at the end there. With the tailwind, it was super-fast. In the end, it suited me.”
Vernon appeared to be in difficulty halfway through the 180km stage, which, although billed as a sprint day, still counted almost 2,000m of climbing. The peloton had two climbs to traverse, including the category-one Coll de Sant Pere de Rodes (7.7km at 6.3%).
“It wasn’t an easy day,” the Brit said. “I think [Lidl-]Trek and some other teams made it hard on the climb, so I suffered a bit then. But I came back, thanks to the job of Itamar [Einhorn], my teammate, who brought me back in a good condition.”Despite […]
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