Vuelta a Espana 2013 Results: Stage 2 Standings, Highlights and Recap

After a frantic team time trial opened the 2013 Vuelta a Espana on Saturday, the action somehow managed to get even more exciting on Sunday as Nicolas Roche of Team Saxo-Tinkoff managed to outlast a large group of competitors en route to a Stage 2 victory, according to Sky Sports Cycling.

Here is a look at how the top 10 played out aside from Roche:

La Vuelta's second stage certainly tested the will and strength of all riders involved. It was a 177.7-kilometer trek from Pontevedra to Baiona, and it involved two separate mountain elevations, which caused a handful of top contenders to fall off the pace.

The race favorite is Italy's Vincenzo Nibali, and although he finished 14 seconds behind Roche for 16th place in the second stage, he took the overall lead and secured the red jersey by virtue of Astana's team time trial victory on Saturday. As the current top 10 confirms, however, Roche isn't far behind in the general classification:

While Roche was ultimately able to steal the headlines, the main story throughout the race was the lead grouping of Gregory Henderson, Alex Rasmussen and Francisco Javier Aramendia breaking away from the peloton early on. The ambitious trio had a great deal of success for much of the race as they built their lead to as much as 11 minutes at one point.

They were unable to hold off the hard-charging peloton for the entirety of the race, however, as brutal wind resistance and the second mountain climb ultimately did them in. The peloton eventually caught up to Henderson, Rasmussen and Aramendia at the base of Alto do Monte da Groba, and they faded into oblivion soon after.

Things were looking good for Team Sky in the latter stages as both Rigoberto Uran and Sergio Henao were potentially in position to win, but Henao couldn't keep pace, according to Team Sky's official Twitter account.

Uran did scratch out a 10th-place finish, but it was a disastrous outing for Henao, who was considered to be one of the top contenders to win the general classification at La Vuelta. He can't be counted out yet, but he'll have to traverse both a literal and figurative uphill climb to get back in the thick of things.

Following Henao's stumble, Movistar Team appeared to take control of the race with just a couple kilometers remaining, as seen in this photo courtesy of Movistar on Twitter:

Movistar was unable to maintain its stranglehold near the front, though, as Alejandro Valverde was the only team member able to keep pace with the leaders by finishing fifth in the stage.

If nothing else, the second stage should have a great impact on strategy moving forward. It was proven that jumping out to a big lead may not be the best course of action, and it also appears as though it will be difficult for single teams to take complete control of the race.

With so many moving parts to consider, the 2012 Vuelta a Espana could very well go down as the most exciting cycling event of the year by the time it's all said and done.

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