Tirreno-Adriatico: Mathieu van der Poel beats Isaac del Toro to thrilling stage 2 victory as wet gravel roads cause chaos

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) powered to victory on stage 2 of Tirreno-Adriatico, edging out Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) in a three-way, uphill sprint in San Gimignano.

The trio had got away after Van der Poel put the hammer down on a long gravel sector in the final 8km, and though he couldn't get away solo after Isaac del Toro chased him down, the Dutchman had just enough speed – and stability on wet paving slabs – to win.

It wasn't a totally smooth ride, with a wobble on a wet gravelled corner almost costing Van der Poel, but the cyclo-cross world champion held it up and worked with Del Toro to hold off the chasing group.

A crash on the same corner as Van der Poel's slip saw Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) lose a big chunk of time, falling down the GC after finishing second in the opening time trial, as the gravel and rain shook up the overall standings.

Though he missed out on the win, Del Toro moved into the race lead, three seconds clear from Pellizzari. He will wear the blue jersey on stage 3, taking over from stage 1 winner Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), who finished just over a minute down, and the Mexican will be a favourite to defend the lead all the way to the end of the race.

"Very difficult," Van der Poel said about beating two young talents in Del Toro and Pellizzari. "The level was incredibly high on the last climb, especially with the rain in the last half an hour; it was quite tricky. But I think the team did a really good job."

Though it came down to a small sprint, it was Van der Poel's big accelerations on the gravel that made the race and the selection.

"First Julian Alaphilippe went and then I tried to take the front just because I knew there were some quite technical corners. I just tried to make the race as hard as possible," he said.

"[The sprint] was really difficult, especially [because] the road and the surface were quite slippery, so it was difficult to stand up in the sprint, and I just saved enough energy to win.

"I'm here, of course, to prepare for San Remo and the other Classic races, but also to try and win a stage. Last year I was close a few times, so I'm happy to take a stage win again here in Tirreno."

How it unfolded

Stage 2 from Camaiore to San Gimignano started out largely flat for the first 120km, but got interesting in the finale with a gravel sector right at the end of the 206km stage and a steep climb up to the finish line.

On a short climb straight out of the neutral, a small breakaway quickly got away, made up of Manuele Tarozzi (Bardiani CSF 7 Saber), Joan Bou (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Alessandro Iacchi (Solution Tech NIPPO Rali) and Diego Sevilla (Polti VisitMalta). They quickly built up a lead of two and a half minutes, and the peloton just let them go for the first half of the long stage.

The effort to bring the break back began fairly early, with the gap starting to fall with 100km to go, and the pace particularly rising on the 9.7km Castelnuovo Val di Cecina climb. The break survived over the climb, with no major action behind, but their gap was slender going onto the descent. They held onto this small gap for quite a while, with the peloton not rushing to make the catch, but the quartet were eventually reeled in with 39km to go.

It was Ineos Grenadiers – holding the race lead with stage 1 winner Ganna – who took up the charge in the peloton, keeping the pace high and controlled. The tempo was enough that riders started to get dispatched out the back on the rolling hills of the final 40km, and it was a real fight for the key teams and riders to keep out of trouble.

With 20km to go, everyone was bunched up and fighting for position in the peloton as rain made the roads more treacherous than usual. The teams were lined up in trains as if for a bunch sprint, such was the importance of hitting the gravel and climb in a good position. There was no notion of attacking out of the wildly high pace; everyone was just waiting for the final.

With 10.5km to go, a crash on a corner saw Martin Marcellusi (Bardiani CSF 7 Saber) crash off the road into the ditch, mercifully avoiding any other riders in the tightly-packed peloton, and it was the blue jersey of Ganna that led the way into the final 10km.

It was a mammoth fight to turn onto the gravel, and the action kicked off immediately, led by Alaphilippe with Van der Poel on his wheel, and the peloton was soon stretched right out. It was Van der Poel who really pushed the pace, forcing a split at the front – he took Matteo Jorgenson and Del Toro with him at first, but a slide-out for Jorgenson saw him go down and hold up Del Toro, allowing Van der Poel to break free on his own with 6km to go.

Del Toro and Giulio Pellizzari kept Van der Poel in their sights, though, and a big pull from the Mexican saw the pair rejoin him with 4km to go. A wobble on a corner nearly cost Van der Poel, but he recovered, though on the same corner, Arensman then hit the deck hard. He had been ahead of Ganna's group, in a big group chasing the leaders, but his crash saw Ineos' GC leader lose time.

The leading trio had a gap of 18 seconds over the chasers entering the final kilometre, with Van der Poel forcing Del Toro to lead out the climb after also having done most of the work in the finale. Pellizzari, who had largely been sitting on, opened up first and initially had a gap, but Van der Poel ground his way back up to the Italian. They went shoulder to shoulder to the line, and despite a late surge from behind from Del Toro, the Dutchman managed to cross the line first and take the win.

Del Toro took second, whilst Pellizzari's tactics only earned him third. A sizeable chasing group finished 15 seconds down after just failing to catch the trio, with Magnus Sheffield the best placed GC rider in that group, moving up to third overall.

Ganna finished 45th, 1:04 down on the winner, ending his short stint in the blue jersey, whilst Arensman fought to limit his losses to 'only' 1:38 after at one point being more than two minutes down, but his GC is possibly already over.

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