Ale-Jet Gets His First of the Year

Alessandro Petacchi got his first victory of 2011 with a bunch sprint victory in stage 2 of the Volta a Catalunya. Petacchi beat out Jose Joaquin Rojas (the only other healthy sprinter in the field that can come anywhere near his speed) to the line.

Obviously the Catalunya is nowhere close to being a sprinters race but Petacchi had this one marked down on his calendar as a likely chance for a win. Who knows how much longer he and the other sprinters will stick around once the stages start getting really tough, but he can mark this down as a mission accomplished.

Rojas put up a good fight of his own, and a photo was actually needed to determine that Petacchi had just edged him out at the line. Manuel Cardoso took third.

Many of the race favorites (except for Menchov and Sastre who are already out of contention) finished together in the peloton and Gatis Smukulis finished in the bunch to keep his leaders jersey.

Stage Results

1. Alessandro Petacchi

2. Jose Joaquin Rojas

3. Manuel Cardoso

General Classification

1. Gatis Smukulis

2. Alessandro Petacchi -28

3. Jose Joaquin Rojas

6. Carlos Barredo

9. Alberto Contador

10. Bauke Mollema

12. Nicolas Roche

14. Cadel Evans

19. Dan Martin

23. Chris Horner

27. Danilo Di Luca

34. Konstantsin Sivtsov

36. Jani Brajkovic

43. Ivan Basso

45. Levi Leipheimer

47. Christian Vandevelde

59. Michele Scarponi

63. Xavier Tondo

169. Carlos Sastre -13:17

174. Taylor Phinney -14:14

177. Denis Menchov -14:49