Santi Ramírez solos to day two Álava win

The highly promising Santiago Ramírez of Lizarte escaped the clutches of the peloton to take the second and final stage of the Dos Días de Álava on Sunday.

The 21-year-old, who turns 22 next weekend, escaped in the closing stages of the race to solo across the line four seconds ahead of a peloton led home by Federico Moreira (Reyno de Navarra) and Marcos Jurádo (Seguros Bilbao). Fourth across the line, Naturgas Energía sprinter Alain González, was crowned best local rider.

The day's racing had been animated by a break including strong-men Imanol Estévez of Naturgas Energía and Ramírez's team-mate Marc Soler, but they weren't able to get too far as Estévez suffered an ill-timed puncture and Soler was reeled in comfortably.

That set it up for Ramírez to go solo and add yet another trophy to his fast-growing collection of mantlepiece decoration. The native of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria - in his third year with the team from Navarra - already has races like the Subida a Gorla and Premio Lakuntza to his name.

Results:

• 1, Santiago Ramírez (Lizarte), 3:06:55
• 2, Federico Moreira (Reyno de Navarra), 0:04
• 3, Marcos Jurádo (Seguros Bilbao), s.t.
• 4, Alain González (Naturgas Energía), s.t.
• 5, Sergey Vdovin (Lokosphinx), s.t.
• 6, Alexis Gandia (Seguros Bilbao), s.t.
• 7, Vadim Zhuravlev (Lokosphinx), s.t.
• 8, Unai Intziarte (Gipuzkoa-Eki Sport), s.t.
• 9, Alexander Vdovin (Lokosphinx), s.t.
• 10, Mikel Ezkieta (Lizarte), s.t.
• 13, Imanol Estévez (Naturgas Energía), s.t.

Photo: www.teldeporte.com