MANOSQUE, France (AP) 鈥� Young British rider Matthew Brennan finished strongly to win the second and longest stage of the Spanish Vuelta ahead of race leader Tadej Poga膷ar on Sunday.
The 21-year-old Brennan capitalized on good work from Visma-Lease a Bike teammate Wout van Aert in an uphill sprint and got ahead of second-place Pau Miquel and third-place Poga膷ar to complete the 214.3-kilometer (133.1 mile) hilly trek through Provence in southern France in 4 hours, 47 minutes, 47 seconds.
Poga膷ar, who in the opening time trial on Saturday, kept the race leader鈥檚 red jersey by finishing with the same time as the stage winner.
The Slovenian leads the general classification by 9 seconds from Van Aert, with Brennan another second behind in third.
Long slog from Monaco
There were attacks from the start Sunday before Hayter, Koen Bouwman, Diego Uriarte, and Sinuh茅 Fernandez got away from the main bunch.
They stayed in front but could never get far enough ahead of the peloton. Hayter, thinking of the red jersey, went solo with just under 50 kilometers to go. The British rider was caught, however, and Poga膷ar was at the front of the peloton with 34 kilometers remaining, when it looked ever more likely to end in a sprint finish.
Teams jostled for position on the wide road as the kilometers slipped by, with UAE Emirates XRG, Visma-Lease a Bike, Lidl-Trek, Groupama-FDJ United and Netcompany Ineos all getting their leaders to the front for the grand finale to come.
Van Aert attacked with just under 2 kilometers to go, followed by Poga膷ar. They were joined by Alessandro Romele, then others, before Brennan emerged to take his first stage victory on his Grand Tour debut just over two weeks after his 21st birthday.
Poga膷ar on a quest
Poga膷ar was 20 when he made his Grand Tour debut at the Vuelta in 2019. He won three stages and finished third at the time, then didn鈥檛 race the Vuelta again till he returned on Saturday.
The Slovenian for the third time straight time and fifth overall in July, while his puts him in position to become just the ninth male rider to win all three Grand Tours after Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Jacques Anquetil, Felice Gimondi, Alberto Contador, Chris Froome, Vincenzo Nibali and Jonas Vingegaard.
First casualties before the mountains
Guatemalan rider Sergio Chumil was the first to abandon the race after a bad crash. Cian Uijtdebroeks crashed earlier Sunday but he managed to get back on his bike.
Monday will see the riders tackle the first mountain stage of the 81st edition, a tough 174-kilometer (108-mile) route from Gruissan-Aude past the city of Perpignan before the climb to the ski resort of Font Romeu in the Pyrenees.
The Vuelta finishes in the southern Spanish city of Granada on Sept. 13.
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