Juan Sebastián Molano (UAE Team Emirates) took his first win of the season on stage 2 of the CRO Race, after threading the needle in the bunch sprint and overpowering Giovanni Lonardi (Polti-Kometa) to the line in Novalja.
Molano was latched onto the back wheel of Sam Welsford (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) before he launched his effort as Polti-Kometa and Bahrain-Victorious led things out, eventually kicking away easily from the Australian and past Lonardi who took second.
The six bonus seconds gained by Lonardi thanks to his second-place finish saw him jump past the Norwegian for the overall lead of the race heading into stage 3, a hillier 154km day from Otočac to Opatija.
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