Sunday 10th May 2015
Albengo to Genoa
177km (1 KOM and 2 Sprints)
1st - Elia Viviani, Team Sky (4:13:18)
2nd - Moreno Hofland, Team LottoNL-Jumbo
3rd - Andre Greipel, Lotto Soudal
Pink Jersey - Michael Matthews, Orica-GreenEDGE
King of the Mountains - Bert-Jan Lindeman, LottoNL-Jumbo
Sprint - Elia Viviani, Team Sky
Best Young Rider - Michael Matthews, Orica-GreenEDGE
Following some of Italy's most spectacular coastline, Stage 2 of this year’s Giro d’Italia promised to be one for the sprinters, and it did not disappoint. With only one categorised climb on the stage, this would be one of the few opportunities for the fast men to have the day to themselves.
The day started in perfect conditions and a five man breakaway established themselves fairly quick smart.
These five would take all of the early points up for grabs in the KOM and Sprint jersey competitions. Marco Frapporti of Androni Giocattoli took out the first intermediate sprint, jumping from the breakaway early and winning easily. He went on to take out the second intermediate sprint shortly after, although he had much more of a fight on his hands with Bert-Jan Lindeman of LottoNL-Jumbo contesting hard for the points. Bert-Jan was keen to make up for his second placing in the sprint and attacked hard on the only KOM opportunity of the day. He was first up the category 4 Pratozanino and took maximum points, ensuring he would wear the blue KOM jersey tomorrow.
From there it was all about the finish. The teams with GC contenders were keen to keep their man out of trouble, Saxo Tinkoff doing a huge amount of work up front.
Approaching the finish the teams in contention for the win took over. Trek Factory Racing, Orica-GreenEDGE and Lampre-Merida flexing their muscle.
With the long finishing straight, the sprint opened up early. Andre Greipel of Lotto-Soudal jumped hard, but might have been a touch overexcited, opening up a pocket for Elia Viviani of Team SKY to move into. Viviani, who was mostly unsighted for the stage, came past Greipel with a rush and narrowly took the stage from Moreno Hofland of LottoNL-Jumbo.
Michael Matthews of Orica-GreenEDGE was in the mix but finished 7th of the day, ahead of his teammate Simon Gerrans, moving him into the Pink leader’s jersey for tomorrow’s stage.
A great result for Orica-GreenEDGE in the end, retaining the leader’s jersey, best young rider jersey and the overall team competition.
Stage 3 is billed as another one for the sprinters, but with a very lumpy terrain, anything could happen.
