Vuelta a Espana 2020: Primoz Roglic defends red jersey as Marc Soler wins first Grand Tour stage

It was another tough day for Chris Froome, however

Marc Soler celebrates as he crosses the finish line (AP)

Marc Soler took his first ever Grand Tour stage victory in a late solo attack on a demanding stage 2 of the Vuelta a Espana.

Primoz Roglic led a nine-man group of GC contenders to finish in second and defend the red jersey 6 seconds ahead of Irishman Dan Martin, who moved into second on the general classification ahead of Richard Carapaz of Ineos Grenadiers.

Soler was able to claim the win having earlier dropped the main peloton with a few other favourites on the category one climb, San Miguel de Aralar. The Spanish cyclist made his move on the descent, attacking with 13km to go.

The 151km stage saw frequent attacks on relatively hilly terrain, with Tim Wellens attacking from a breakaway involving four other riders to take over a 6-minute lead with 70km to go.

Jumbo Visma controlled much of the front of the peloton for Roglic, until 60km to go where Movistar began pushing the front to split the race up.

Ineos Grenadiers fought to bring the peloton back together to keep Carapaz in prime position. Chris Froome was unfortunately dropped with 50km to the finish, as was Guillaume Martin from Cofidis.

Wellens sat up with 38km to go to let the earlier breakaway catch him, who were then brought back into the peloton. However, it wasn’t long before the group fractured again as Armirail attacked immediately after bringing the peloton together.

With 33km to the finish, Carapaz made a shock attack with teammate Andrey Amador and catch up with Armirail and Aranburu to make a four-man leading group, holding the pace 10 seconds ahead of the peloton at the foot of the final climb before they were shortly caught.

Movistar sped the pace up again, dropping Jumbo-Visma’s Tom Dumoulin in the process, whilst attacks littered up the mountain, reducing the peloton to just 15 riders.

Soler set the vicious pace up the last part of the climb until only eight riders were left, including teammates Enric Mas and Valverde, Carapaz, Dan Martin, Carthy, Chaves, Kuss and overall leader Roglic.

Carapaz attacked over the summit and continued to push on in the descent, but the others managed to reel him in.

Despite having done so much work on the climb, Soler still had the legs to attack on the descent, opening up an advantage of over 20 seconds.

George Bennett was able to join the break on the descent to set the pace for Roglic, but Soler was uncatchable, flying down the mountain to give himself enough time to celebrate his victory at the line.