Giro della Toscana: Guillaume Martin wins stage and overall in Volterra

Guillaume Martin (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) continued his fine run of recent form by claiming overall victory at the Giro della Toscana after soling to victory on the hilltop finish at Volterra at the end of stage 2.

Martin punched his way clear of his fellow escapees with a little over a kilometre to go on the stiff cobbled climb to the finish, and he quickly established a winning advantage. The Frenchman crested the summit in the heart of Volterra with a lead of 10 seconds over Giovanni Visconti (Bahrain-Merida), while Mattia Cattaneo (Androni Giocattoli) took third.

Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) crossed the line in 7th place on the stage as part of the main peloton, just ahead of Egan Bernal (Androni Giocattoli). The Dimension Data team of stage 1 winner Steve Cummings rode prominently in a bid to defend the Briton's overall lead, but Martin's stage win was enough to move him to the top of the general classification.

The 24-year-old Martin finished 23rd in a solid Tour de France debut in July, and has enjoyed considerable success in the weeks since his maiden Grand Tour. The Frenchman has now clocked up five victories since mid-August, following his stage win at the Tour du Limousin and a stage win and final overall victory at the Tour du Gevaudan last week.

In Tuscany on Wednesday, Martin was part of the decisive break that formed on the final lap of the finishing circuit around Volterra, tracking the move of Michele Gazzara (Sangemini - Mg. K Vis) and Pavel Brutt (Gazprom-Rusvelo) in the company of Cattaneo, Enrico Gasparotto (Bahrain-Merida), Matteo Bono (UAE-Team Emirates) and Matteo Busato (Wilier).

In the frantic closing kilometres, others, including Visconti and Anthony Delaplace (Fortuneo-Oscaro) succeeded in bridging across to the Martin group, which had in turn caught Federico Zurlo (UAE-Team Emirates), a survivor of the day's early break.

When Visconti launched a fierce attack with a little over three kilometres to go, only Martin, Delaplace and Cattano could follow, and they approach the base of the final climb towards Volterra with a lead of 40 seconds over the main peloton, which featured Nibali, Bernal and Cummings.

Once the road gradient began to pitch up in earnest, it was soon apparent that Martin was the strongest of the escapees, and he forged clear outside the final kilometre. He managed his advantage well thereafter to claim stage victory.

A disappointed Visconti led the chasers home, 10 seconds behind Martin. Cattaneo beat Fabricio Ferrari (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Delaplace to third, while Marco Canola (Nippo-Vini Fantini) came home just ahead of Nibali, Bernal and the other overall favourites.

The stage had been animated by an early escape featuring Martin's Wanty-Groupe Gobert teammate Danilo Napolitano, as well as Fabricio Ferrari, Josu Zaballa (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Federico Zurlo (UAE-Team Emirates) Matthias Krizek (Tirol Cycling), Igor Boev (Gazprom-Rusvelo), Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani-CSF) and Jacopo Mosca (Wilier). They spent over 100 kilometres at the front and gained a maximum advantage of almost five minutes before Dimension Data and Bahrain-Merida began to peg them back ahead of the finale.

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