Zardini solos to Giro del Trentino stage 2 victory

Edoardo Zardini (Bardiani Valvole-CSF) won the second stage of the Giro del Trentino to San Giacomo di Brentonico, after a solo attack on the final climb. Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida) won the sprint for second with Fabio Duarte (Colombia) rounding out the top three. 

Zardini made it away in a group of four mid-way up the final climb. The Italian left his fellow escapees behind and began building up a comfortable lead on the chasing pack. Zardini started the day with a 38 second deficit on the overall race  lead, and came agonisingly close to eliminating that gap on the road.

However, a group of favourites, that included BMC’s Cadel Evans, set off in pursuit of Zardini and began to cut his lead down. They ran out of road, but had done enough to stop him getting into the pink leader's jersey. Evans held onto the group to take the race lead, after starting the day on the same time as the leader, teammate Daniel Oss.

"I did it! I did it!" Zardini shouted at the finish line. "I felt great today and went for it but it's hard to really understand what I've done."

"I'm not fast in a sprint and so I've never won much even if I'd had some good results. This is my first pro win and to manage to beat some big name riders is incredible. It'll take me some time to realise what I've done."

"I knew I had to drop everyone to win but knew I'd have to be 110% to do it. Fortunately I felt great today and went on the attack with my teammate Pirazzi and two others, then I went alone with about six kilometres to go."

How it happened

It was an earlier start for the riders today, after the leisurely afternoon start of the team time trial. Stage two was no casual easing into the race, but a full-on mountain stage with a summit finish. Trentino local Oss started the day in pink after he crossed the line first for BMC in the team time trial.

With the climbs ahead and a potential jersey in sight, the bunch were very active from the off. However, it took more than 30 kilometres before the peloton finally relented and let an escape go. The lucky men were Leonardo Duque (Colombia), Adrian Honkisz (CCC-Polsat) and Giorgio Checchinel (Neri Sottoli).

The trio were not seen as a threat by the BMC team, and they were allowed to build up a gap of almost nine minutes. BMC did much of the work on the front of the peloton, not just to protect the pink jersey but to keep general classification hope Cadel Evans in position to take it from Oss at the end of the day.

As they hit the bottom of the final climb, the three escapees had a mere 40 seconds in their pockets. After missing out on the break, MTN-Qhubeka started flying off the front. First Jacques Janse van Rensburg, then Daniel Teklehaimanot, before Sergio Pardilla took his turn, and then Van Rensburg again. The pace proved too much for race leader Oss, who began losing ground on the peloton.

Despite their best efforts, MTN struggled to make it stick and the ever-dwindling peloton powered up the climb together. Van Rensburg’s second attack was the most effective, as he took three other riders with him. The South African was dropped by his fellow escapees, but the others continued to build a small gap.

Edoardo Zardini (Bardiani Valvole-CSF) was one of the three and he launched his own attack from the leading group. Ivan Basso’s (Cannondale) race ambitions took a blow when he went off the back with four kilometres to go. Bradley Wiggins (Sky) also fell off the pace, after spending the day working for his teammates.

As the stage reached it’s closure the general classification riders took matters into their own hands. Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R-La Mondiale), Evans, Fabio Aru (Astana) and Duarte. Niemiec later joined the group, but had to settle for second.

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