There was not much movement on the overall general classification after the second stage of the Vuelta a Burgos, with Louis Meintjes staying 43rd overall. Austria’s Felix Grossschartner (Aut) retained the overall lead.
In the first big bunch sprint of the ‘new normal’ it was business as usual for Colombia’s Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates), who picked up at the Vuelta a Burgos from where he had left off in the Vuelta a San Juan, adding his fourth win of the season to his hat-trick in January in Argentina.
CCC, Deceuninck-QuickStep and finally Groupama-FDJ had all tried to keep their riders at the front of the line as the peloton roared down the final, fast descent into Villadiego. Gaviria was a match for all of them, streaking past the French train without any difficulty and taking a victory by several bike lengths ahead of Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) and Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick Step).
For Gaviria and Team UAE, victory concluded what had been a fraught day at the office in the best of styles, given the events of the morning of stage two. Three of his teammates – Sebastian Molano, Cristian Muñoz and Camilo Ardila – were all sent home on Wednesday morning after it was discovered they had had contact with a person who subsequently tested positive for Covid-19. All three had returned double negative PCR results for Covid-19 before Burgos, but the team opted to take them out of the race a precaution.
How the SA cyclists fared
Stage results
45 Willie Smit (Burgos-BH) 3hr 55min 58sec Same time as winner
79 Louis Meintjes (NTT Pro Cycling) Same time as winner
93 Nicholas Dlamini (NTT Pro Cycling) Same time as winner
Overall
43 Louis Meintjes (+28 sec)
86 Willie Smit (+3:33)
108 Nicholas Dlamini (+8:21)