February 11, 2009 (Cuba) – Cuba swept the podium on Wednesday’s 111km Stage 2 from Guantanamo to Santiago De Cuba with Reldys Perez taking the win followed by Arnold Alcolea in second now leading and Jorge J. Rojas in third. Francois Parisien (Team Planet Energy) lead the Canadian charge in 11th. Here’s a brief report from today’s race from Steve Bauer, Planet Energy Team Director…

“A Cuban A Team rider took the jersey winning solo from a break of four riders. We didn’t want to try and defend it for 13 more stages so we were conservative. Keven gave a wheel to Francois Parisien in the final. It’s a long day tomorrow too – Stage 3 is 196km. The upcoming ITT (Stage 8) will be important for GC. We’re aiming for Frank or Ryan Roth, or Andrew Randell to be our GC guys. Before then we will try not to miss anything big and pick off another stage. The TT and Stage 12 with a mountain top will be the important stages.”


Results

1. Reldys Perez (Cub) Team Cuba 2:26:26
2. Arnold Alcolea (Cub) Team Cuba
3. Jorge J. Rojas (Cub) Sancti Spiritus

11. Francois Parisien (Can) Team Planet Energy

GC after Stage 2

1. Arnold Alcolea (Cub) Team Cuba 6:17:05
2. Alien Garcia (Cub) Ciego de Avila
3. Yasmani Martinez (Cub) Team Cuba