page_title: 2015 Vuelta a España, Stage 1 to Stage 11
section_title: Stage 2
hierarchical_section_title: 2015 Vuelta a España, Stage 1 to Stage 11 / Stage 2
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Reportage réalisé le mardi 7 juillet à l'occasion de l'arrivée de la quatrième étape du Tour de France 2015 à Cambrai, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. Nederlands: Aankomst, dinsdag 7 juli 2015, vierde etappe, Ronde van Frankrijk 2015, Cambrai, Noorderdepartement, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Frankrijk.
context_page_description: The 2015 Vuelta a España was a three-week Grand Tour cycling race that took place principally in Spain between 22 August and 13 September 2015; two stages also took place partly or wholly in Andorra. The first ten stages took the race from Spain's southern Mediterranean coast to Castellón de la Plana on the eastern coast.
  Stage 1 was a team time trial that took place around the Costa del Sol beach resort of Marbella on 22 August. The day before the stage took place, its route was deemed to be dangerous by the race commissaires; the times did not therefore count for the general classification and several teams rode the stage slowly. The second stage was therefore the first whose times counted; it was the first of nine summit finishes in the Vuelta and was won by Esteban Chaves, who took the leader's red jersey. Stages 3, 4 and 5 were hilly sprint stages, won by Peter Sagan, Alejandro Valverde and Caleb Ewan respectively. Tom Dumoulin took the red jersey after the fifth stage because of a split in the peloton at the finish line.
  The race returned to the mountains on stage 6 with a third-category summit finish. This was again won by Chaves, who therefore regained the race lead.
context_section_description: 23 August 2015 — Alhaurín de la Torre to Caminito del Rey, 158.7 km (98.6 mi)
  The second stage was a 158.7-kilometre (98.6 mi) route that included the first summit finish of the race. Most of the stage was fairly flat, with only the third-category Alto de Ardales after 113 kilometres (70 mi) providing any significant difficulty (5 kilometres (3.1 mi) at 4.4%). The finish of the stage, however, was on the third-category Alto de la Mesa. This was 4.7 kilometres (2.9 mi) at an average of 6.5%, including a section of 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) at almost 9% and shorter sections of 15%. The stage finished near the Caminito del Rey, one of the most famous sights in Málaga.
  The first crash of the Vuelta came after just 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) of racing: Matteo Pelucchi (IAM Cycling) was riding at the back of the peloton and crashed on a corner as Movistar rode hard at the front. He suffered abrasions and road rash and was forced to abandon the race. A breakaway escaped approximately 18 kilometres (11 mi) later. It was formed of Nelson Oliveira (Lampre–Merida), Davide Villella (Cannondale–Garmin), Walter Pedraza (Colombia), Bert-Jan Lindeman (LottoNL–Jumbo), José Gonçalves (Caja Rural–Seguros RGA) and Matteo Montaguti (AG2R La Mondiale). Although the six riders were unable to build a significant lead, they did lead over the first climb of the day; Pedraza won the mountain points at the top of the Vuelta's first climb. At this point, the break's lead was about one minute.
  With 30 kilometres (19 mi) remaining, however, there was a large crash in the peloton, delaying a large number of riders. Vincenzo Nibali and Fabio Aru (both Astana) were among the riders caught up in the crash. Aru was quickly given a bike and was soon with the main peloton, but Nibali waited a long time before Giuseppe Martinelli provided him with a new bike. Nibali was then forced to make a long chase to return to the peloton. Another Astana rider, Paolo Tiralongo also crashed and was seen after the incident bleeding from his head. After the team lost Pelucchi early in the day, IAM Cycling's David Tanner was also caught in the crash and suffered a broken pelvis.
  On the climb to the finish, Cyril Gautier (Team Europcar) was the first to attack, but was soon caught by Nairo Quintana (Movistar), who was in a group with Nicolas Roche (Sky) and Tom Dumoulin (Team Giant–Alpecin). After work from his team, Esteban Chaves (Orica–GreenEDGE) attacked and bridged across to the leading three riders. Chaves soon dropped Quintana from the group and, despite an attack from Roche in the final 1 kilometre (0.6 mi), took the stage victory. This was his first ever Grand Tour stage victory and gave him the leader's jersey. Dumoulin was second on the stage with Roche third. Dan Martin (Cannondale–Garmin) was fourth, 14" back, with Joaquim Rodríguez (Team Katusha) and Quintana a further 12" behind. Chris Froome (Sky) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) came in together 30" behind Chaves, with Aru and all the other contenders further behind. As well as taking the overall lead of the race, Chaves also took the lead in the other three classifications (the points classification, the mountains classification and the combination classification).
  After the stage, a video emerged of Nibali holding onto his team car as it accelerated away from a group of riders that had been caught up in the crash. The acceleration helped Nibali to rejoin the peloton ahead of the final climb. As a result of the incident, the race jury disqualified Nibali from the race, describing the situation as "really clear". One of the team's directeurs sportifs, Alexander Shefer, was also excluded from taking further part in the race. Nibali apologised for the incident after the race, but also expressed his frustration at having been abandoned by his team.
caption: Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) was disqualified from the race after holding onto a team car (photographed during the 2015 Tour de France).
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