Oscar Freire was the victor on the second day of the Vuelta Espana after blitzing his rivals in a sprint finish in Santiago de Compostela.
Freire was second behind Italian Daniele Bennati on the opening day following another sprint at the end of the stage, but the Spaniard went one better on day two to clinch the 150km ride from Allariz.
The 31-year-old Rabobank rider's victory also saw him become the new race leader, replacing Bennati who suffered a crash near the end.
Freire came home in a time of three hours, 31 minutes and three seconds, crossing the line a couple of metres ahead of Paolo Bettini, who was runner-up.
Third place went to Leonardo Duque while German ace Eric Zabel, who was eighth on the opening day, was fourth.
The race was only 3km old when three Spanish riders, Raul Garcia de Mateos, Manuel Vazquez and Gustavo Dominguez, broke away from the main pack, and they spent most of the day setting the pace.
A third of the way through the stage the trio enjoyed a lead of almost four minutes, while they regularly stayed around three minutes ahead of the peloton, which often had either the Lampre or Milram teams heading the chase.
Lampre boasted the race's golden jersey following Bennati's opening-day win, while rival Italian team Milram also had a high-flying rider in their ranks, with Alessandro Petacchi third on day one.
The pacesetters slowed down on an uphill section of the course at the 122km point, and their advantage was reduced to less than a minute at that point.
That was then cut to 24 seconds with 20km to go as another Spaniard, Angel Gomez Gomez, broke away from the peloton before joining up with Garcia de Mateos, Vazquez and Dominguez - the first rival cyclist the leaders had seen in over 120km.
The quartet were not alone for long though, with the main group swallowing up the breakaway party with 18km remaining to the finish line.
With just over 10km to go, Jorge Garcia Marin and Christophe Kern looked to escape at the front, but their brief attack was soon ended.
A crash in the closing stages - which included race leader Bennati - slowed the leading pack, but after that triple world champion Freire emerged from a breakaway group to take the spoils following a blistering finish.
Stage three of the Vuelta takes place tomorrow, with a 155km ride from Viveiro to Luarca.
The Tour of Spain ends on 23 September in Madrid.
Stage two result:
1 Oscar Freire (Spain / Rabobank ) 3 hrs 31 mins 03"
2 Paolo Bettini (Italy / Quick-Step ) same time
3 Leonardo Duque (Colombia / Cofidis )
4 Erik Zabel (Germany / Milram )
5 Davide Rebellin (Italy / Gerolsteiner )
6 Rene Mandri (Estonia / AG2R )
7 Aurelien Clerc (Switzerland / Bouygues Telecom )
8 Luis Leon Sanchez (Spain / Caisse d'Epargne )
9 Renaud Dion (France / AG2R )
10 Lorenzo Bernucci (Italy / T-Mobile )
11 Angelo Furlan (Italy / Credit Agricole )
12 David Lopez (Spain / Caisse d'Epargne )
13 Denis Menchov (Russia / Rabobank )
14 Alan Perez (Spain / Euskaltel )
15 Philippe Gilbert (Belgium / Francaise des Jeux )
16 Roman Kreuziger (Czech Republic / Liquigas )
17 Ezequiel Mosquera (Spain / Karpin )
18 Carlos Barredo (Spain / Quick-Step )
19 Carlos Sastre (Spain / Team CSC )
20 Addy Engels (Netherlands / Quick-Step )
21 Alessandro Petacchi (Italy / Milram ) +12"
22 Marco Velo (Italy / Milram ) +29"
23 Patrick Calcagni (Switzerland / Liquigas )
24 Alberto Ongarato (Italy / Milram ) +38"
25 Vladimir Efimkine (Russia / Caisse d'Epargne ) +44"
26 Alexandre Botcharov (Russia / Credit Agricole )
27 Oliver Zaugg (Switzerland / Gerolsteiner )
28 Manuel Beltran (Spain / Liquigas )
29 Elia Rigotto (Italy / Milram ) +57"
30 David Garcia (Spain / Karpin )
