With Trek-Segafredo martialling the peloton, there was no room for manoeuvre of the front and no breakaway formed on the 203km stage with the pace high from the off.

The first notable crosswinds hit with 75km still to race, with Jarlinson Pantano setting a fast pace to force a split, but the peloton was back together little more than six kilometres later.

A bad crash, involving a low wall, forced Anass Eit El Abdia (UAE Team Emirates) and Javier Moreno (Bahrain-Merida) to become the first riders to leave this year’s race, but the action otherwise continued unabated.

Further back, tenth-placed Nibali was the only GC contender credited with the same time as the front group, while Chaves also gained a handful of seconds in front of another split.

Froome finished 16th on the day, in the same group as Fabio Aru (Astana) and Adam Yates (Orica-Scott), with another split costing Contador, Simon Yates (Orica-Scott) and Romain Bardet (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and red jersey Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing) a further five seconds.

Froome is now up to ninth overall, 21 seconds behind Lampaert, who leads by one second from team-mate Trentin.

Vuelta a Espana 2017: stage two – result

1) Yves Lampaert (BEL) – QuickStep Floors – 4.36.13hrs
2) Matteo Trentin (ITA) – QuickStep Floors – ST
3) Adam Blythe (GBR) – Aqua Blue Sport
4) Edward Theuns (BEL) – Trek-Segafredo
5) Sacha Modolo (ITA) – UAE Team Emirates
6) Michael Schwarzmann (GER) – Bora-hansgrohe
7) Tom van Asbroeck (BEL) – Cannondale-Drapac
8) Daniel Oss (ITA) – BMC Racing
9) Patrick Konrad (AUT) – Bora-hansgrohe
10) Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) – Bahrain-Merida

General classification

1) Yves Lampaert (BEL) – QuickStep Floors – 4.52.07hrs
2) Matteo Trentin (ITA) – QuickStep Floors +1”
3) Daniel Oss (ITA) – BMC Racing +3”
4) Tejay van Garderen (USA) – BMC Racing +17”
5) Nicolas Roche (IRL) – BMC Racing – ST
6) Rohan Dennis (AUS) – BMC Racing
7) Julian Alaphilippe (FRA) – QuickStep Floors +18”
8) Wilco Kelderman (NED) – Team Sunweb – ST
9) Chris Froome (GBR) – Team Sky +21”
10) Wout Poels (NED) – Team Sky – ST