La Vuelta Stage 2 Predictions: 15/2 pick for uphill success in Piedmont

La Vuelta a Espana continues on Sunday with Stage 2 after Saturday’s Grand Depart was won in a sprint finish by Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Jasper Philipsen (live on TNT Sports 3  from 12:30 BST, highlights at 22:00).

Sunday’s 159.6km trek between Alba and Limone Piemonte sees a largely flat stage make way for an uphill finish. My La Vuelta Stage 2 predictions will have to consider a few different styles of rider for the win.

La Vuelta Betting Odds

This stage provides one of the rare days on which the only classified climb comes right at the end of the action.

The ascent up to Limone Piemonte sees 9.8km covered at an average gradient of 5.1%. It is a category-two climb which should be tough enough to cause a split in whatever is left of the peloton at the foot.

While this sort of parcours is well within the range of race favourite Jonas Vingegaard, this should be far too early for the GC contenders to go all-out for victory. As such, there could be a breakaway contest with plenty of teams looking to get potential victors into the picture before the climb begins.

The Dane is 11/2 to set down an early marker, with Tom Pidcock the 13/2 second favourite. Lidl-Trek’s Giulio Ciccone comes in next at 15/2, with UAE Team Emirates’ Juan Ayuso 8/1 and Finn Fisher-Black of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe 14/1.

Cycling Odds

Giulio Ciccone @ 15/2

Having backed Ciccone to take the King of the Mountains title outright, I think this is exactly the kind of stage which will get him interested.

The 30-year-old Italian has recorded three previous stage wins in Grand Tour. All three of them came in the Giro d’Italia, and all had uphill finishes of varying degrees.

While this is the Vuelta, and not the Giro, he is still on very familiar ground at this early stage with the first four days of action taking place in his homeland.

And he has the record in climbs to match anyone taking part in this event, making the 15/2 for him to outstrip a field that might still be making its mind up more than possible.

Vingegaard might not want to go too big too early, and there are the extra responsibilities of being a race leader which don’t sit well with the need for rest. So you can only imagine that the Visma Lease-a-Bike star will go for it in the event that another GC contender attacks but in no other scenario.

That helps to send my mind towards a Ciccone win on stage two, with his claims for that polka dot treble getting an early boost.

Tom Pidcock E/W @ 13/2

This could be the day that Q36.5 get their biggest result in their short history. Sure, Pidcock was the overall winner at the AlUla Tour at the begin of the year, but a stage win at a Grand Tour would be quite the feat.

The Brit is obviously their best hope, and having been in with a shot of taking home the Strade Bianche back in the spring – until Tadej Pogacar heroically jumped back on his bike and delivered a ride for the ages – he has already shown that he still has what it takes to compete at the front end of the bigger races.

I see this being a battle between eight or 10 of the leading lights, but if Pidcock can show some of that stickability he has in his locker then he could well achieve a top-three finish in this stage.

You can read all our latest Cycling Betting Tips here.