The Italian takes the lead in the youth classification after the second stage, which teammate Alberto Dainese finished in the top five.
Volta a Catalunya continued on Tuesday with another hilly parcours, this time between Figueres, the hometown of Salvador Dali, to Banyoles, one of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics venues. Despite the vertical gain of almost 2000 meters and the numerous short climbs on the route, the sprinters were eyeing this stage, and for that reason, several teams shared the responsibility at the front of the peloton, chasing the five-man breakaway.
Surprisingly, the escapees put up quite the fight, despite their maximum gap hovering around just two minutes. With ten kilometers to go, two men were still up the road with a 40-second gap, and it took a big effort from the bunch to bring the last member of that move back, just as they rode under the flamme rouge.
Andreea Raccagni piloted countryman Alberto Dainese there, and the fast Italian sprinted on the 4% drag to the line to a solid top five on the stage won by Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility). His younger teammate finished just outside the top ten, which helped him pull on the white jersey as the best young rider in the race. It’s for the second time this season that Dainese leads the youth standings at a World Tour event this season after the Tour Down Under, where he ended up winning the jersey.
Photo credit: ©Szymon Gruchalski / Getty Images
