Rémi Pauriol, photo by jmreymond

After an abandon prior to the start of Stage 2, we were left with 197 riders to come home. Rémi Pauriol of FDJ-Bigmat held tight to the middle and finished as the Vuelta a España’s first Point d’Appui in the general classification.

Pauriol shared les Cuspides with teammate David Boucher after Stage 1, but Boucher fell off the bus during Stage 2 and wound up in last position on the day, filling in for Enrico Gasparotto of Astana, Stage 1’s last-place finisher. Gasparotto crashed hard in Stage 1 during the team time trial, suffering a triple broken collar. He pedaled to the finish in last place but came home outside the time limit and was unable to start Sunday.

Pauriol finished 57 seconds behind race leader Jonathan Castroviejo and 12 minutes 56 seconds ahead of Boucher.

Tomasz Marczynski of Vacansoleil-DCM finished on the fulcrum for the stage.

Here’s hoping the racers cool their heels a bit and we avoid more race-ending crashes.