MTN-Qhubeka put African cycling on show in today's stage of the Vuelta a Burgos when Rwandan Adrien Niyonshuti spent most of the day in the break. In the end, the team had planned to set up Youcef Reguigui for the sprint but messed up the lead-out.

Matteo Pelucchi (IAM Cycling) lived up to his tag a favourite for the 2nd stage after being delivered to the line first by his Swiss team. Giant-Shimano had trainee Steven Lammertink finish 2nd just ahead of team mate Thomas Damuseau in 3rd. Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung had Linus Gerdemann cross the line in 8th position.

After finding the break at last weekends Ride London Classic, Adrien Niyonshuti once again went on the attack at today’s Vuelta a Burgos stage. Niyonshuti got away within the first 5km’s of today’s stage with Javier Aramendia (Caja Rural), Mirko Tedeschi (Neri Sottoli), Jon Larrinaga (Euskatel), Pablo Torres (Burgos-BH) and Pomoshnikov (Rusvelo). The 6 riders worked well together on another warm and breezy day but IAM Cycling and Movistar were really intent on bringing the stage to a sprint for their fast men. The leaders never got much more than a 2’30″ lead and with 10km to go the break was neutralised.

Niyonshuti’s show of strength was not in vain though as Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung could sit in the peloton and conserve energy for the finale as well as for tomorrow’s tough mountain stage. The plan was to set up Algerian sprinter Youcef Reguigui at the finish but a technical finish caused some chaos and splits in the final km. Gerdemann was in the front split while Reguigui and Teklehaimanot were just behind, crossing the line in 13th and 16th respectively.

"Today we were represented in the break with Adrien who did an awesome ride," Director Sportif Manel Lacambra said. "It was nice to show the power of the African riders just one week before of the Vuelta a España and we got a lot of compliments for that.

"The rest of the team did  great job in protecting Sergio [Pardilla] the whole day and keeping him safe for the GC. In the final we tried to help Youcef for the sprint finish but in the last 2km we messed up the lead out for him a bit among all the chaos and Linus was able to get through for 8th on the stage. Tomorrow is the hardest stage of this tour and we hope for a good result from our climbers."