Francisco Ventoso (Photo: Saunier Duval)

SALAMANCA, Mar 27 (CP) - The second stage of the Vuelta a Castilla y León was won by home rider Francisco Ventoso. The Spaniard was the fastest in the final mass sprint. In the overall classification, Vladimir Karpets easily maintained his lead.

On the second day of the race, the riders completed a 157 kilometres long course from Zamora to Salamanca, with halfway the stage a climb of the second Category.

After only 46 kilometres, the first attack of the day was launched and a group of eight riders, including Andalucia's José Carrasco, Ezequiel Mosquera of Karpin-Galicia and Fuerteventura Canarias rider Iker Leonet, managed to get clear of the bunch.

The eight built up a good lead and with 50 kilometres left to the finish line, they still had an advantage of two minutes. However, with about 15 kilometres to go, the escapees were caught by the peloton.

The race ended up in a final bunch sprint, in which Saunier Duval rider Ventoso was the fastest, outsprinting Benfica rider Javier Benitez and Relax-GAM's Jan Hruska.

In the overall classification, Caisse d'Epargne rider Karpets managed to maintain his lead over Discovery Channel's Egoi Martinez and Frenchman Florent Brard.

Stage results:

1. Francisco Jose Ventoso (Esp-SDV) 3h34'07"
2. Javier Benitez (Esp-SLB) s.t.
3. Jan Hruska (Cze-REG) s.t.
4. Joaquin Sobrino (Esp-REG) s.t.
5. Aitor Galdos (Esp-EUS) s.t.
6. Magnus Backstedt (Swe-LIQ) s.t.
7. Alessandro Vanotti (Ita-LIQ) s.t.
8. Mikel Artetxe (Esp-FTV) s.t.
9. Benoît Sinner (Fra-AGR) s.t.
10. Igor Anton (Esp-EUS) s.t.

General classification:

1. Vladimir Karpets (Rus-GCE) 3h46'02"
2. Egoi Martinez (Esp-DSC) 0'02"
3. Florent Brard (Fra-GCE) 0'03"
4. Francisco Ventoso (Esp-SDV) 0'05"
5. Alberto Contador (Esp-DSC) 0'06"
6. Magnus Backstedt (Swe-LIQ) 0'09"
7. Ivan Basso (Ita-DSC) s.t.
8. Levi Leipheimer (USA-DSC) 0'10"
9. Vladimir Miholjevic (Cro-LIQ) 0'18"
10. Sergio Paulinho (Por-DSC) s.t.

© Sébastien Toussaint