Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil (1963) and Bernard Hinault (1978) are the only riders to have won the Tour and the Vuelta in the same year.
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The Astana cycling team have apologised after their rider Vincenzo Nibali was expelled from the Vuelta A Espana after being towed by a team auto.
Stage two victor Esteban Chaves rolled across the line as part of the main bunch and thus conserved the red leader’s jersey. The spill held up nearly two thirds of the peleton and several riders needed medical assistance, although no serious injuries were reported. Spaniard Joachim “Purito” Rodriguez was fifth and countryman Alejandro Valverde eighth.
The cyclist Vincenzo Nibali has been disqualified from the Tour of Spain after he was filmed hitching a high-speed lift by holding onto his team support auto. Dumoulin stayed close to Chaves until the final metres but eventually fell back.
Nibali had been one of a number of riders involved in a crash 30 kilometres from the finish of the 158.7km ride from Alhaurin de la Torre to Caminito del Rey and was cut adrift from the peloton as a result.
Velits, the race’s first red jersey following BMC’s opening team time trial win on Saturday, was the first of the escapees to be caught after being dropped on the major test of the day, the Cat.
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With Chaves and a small group already up the road, Nairo Quintana sprang away from the field with three kilometers remaining as the runner up in this year’s Tour de France looked to try and put early seconds into Chris Froome, his nemesis in France. This is what he said: “In my opinion the jury’s decision doesn’t make sense, because on other occasions, in the past, they did something different, with maybe a penalty of a minute or 2, or even 3 minutes, why not?” Riding his third Grand Tour of the season and in the hunt for a new contract, Chavanel was joined by Natnael Berhane (MTN-Qhubeka), Omar Fraile (Caja Rural), Walter Pedraza Morales (Colombia), Martin Velits (Etixx-QuickStep), Alexis Gougeard (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Ilia Koshevoy (Lampre-Merida) and Maarten Tjallingii (LottoNL-Jumbo).
