GreenEDGE have continued a highly impressive debut season with victory on the second stage of the Tour of the Basque Country.

Daryl Impey led home teammate Allen Davis for a one-two finish at the end of a 165.7km from Güeñes to Vitoria-Gasteiz. Impey launched a solo effort in the closing kilometre and held on to take the victory ahead of the chasing peloton.

“When I found myself with the gap, I decided to take it. The boys worked so well early in the race and held it all together in the sprint. It’s a massive victory – definitely the biggest moment in my career,” he said.

Team Sky’s David Appolonio finished third, with the team’s contenders for overall victory – Michael Rogers, Sergio Henao, Thomas Löfkvist and Lars-Petter Nordhaug – finishing with the same time as the sprinter.

Directeur sportif, Marcus Ljungqvist, summarised the team’s race as: “so far, so good”.

“The main thing was to lose no time on GC and give a hand to Appo for the sprint; Puccio did well to bring him up with a kilometre to go and chapeau to GreenEDGE for the one-two, they took the opportunity impressively.

“Astana had tried to split it up late on but it all came back together and it was a pretty straightforward day in the end. “But looking at all the stages, tomorrow is the hardest one and has a decisive role to play. We have a good team for it and it’s going to be really interesting to see how far they can go – I’m sure we’ll be right in the mix,” he said.

Race leader, Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar), finished fourth on the stage and leads 92 riders tied on time by virtue of victory on stage one.

Tomorrow’s third stage will take the riders on a 164km route from Vitoria-Gasteiz to Eibar-Arrate.

Stage two – result

1) Daryl Impey (RSA) – GreenEdge – 4:10.07
2) Allan Davis (AUS) – GreenEdge
3) Davide Appollonio (ITA) – Team Sky
4) Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (SPA) – Movistar Team
5) Michael Matthews (AUS) – Rabobank
6) Daniele Ratto (ITA) – Liquigas-Cannondale
7) Francesco Gavazzi (ITA) – Astana
8) Fabian Wegmann (GER) – Garmin-Barracuda
9) Gianni Meersman (BEL) – Lotto-Belisol
10) Daniele Pietropolli (ITA) – Lampre- ISD

General classification

1) Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Movistar – 8:07:51
2) Daniele Ratto (ITA) – Liquigas-Cannondale
3) Fabian Wegmann (GER) – Garmin-Barracuda
4) Daryl Impey (RSA)- GreenEdge
5) Francesco Gavazzi (ITA) – Astana
6) Gianni Meersman (BEL) – Lotto-Belisol
7) Ryder Hesjedal (CAN) – Garmin-Barracuda
8) Michael Matthews (AUS) – Rabobank
9) Davide Appollonio (ITA) – Team Sky
10) Mauro Santambrogio (ITA) – BMC Racing