Giro di Sicilia: Caruso wins stage 2 ahead of Nibali

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Damiano Caruso claimed the second stage of the Giro di Sicilia, out-sprinting Vincenzo Nibali (Astana Qazaqstan) and Domenico Pozzovivo (Intermarché-Wanty Gobert Matériaux) on an uphill sprint in Caltanissetta. Caruso played off a superb lead out on the climb to the finish from his Italian National teammates and timed his sprint perfectly to win the stage and take the race lead from Bahrain Victorious teammate Matteo Malucelli.

Caruso leads Nibali in the overall by four seconds thanks to the time bonus with Pozzovivo at six seconds. Filippo Fiorelli (Bardiani-CSF Faizané), having been third on the opening stage and holding on for eighth in Caltanissetta, is fourth at nine seconds while Kenny Elissonde (Trek-Segafredo) is one second further back in fifth.

"It's an amazing feeling because today the national team rode like a good team with experience," Caruso said. "Then on the final climb the guys did an amazing job, they managed the last climb really well. When I started the sprint and saw Nibali on my wheel, I said 'OK, this is amazing'."

Four of the Italian National Team riders at the Giro di Sicilia come from the Gazprom-RusVelo team which was forced to close because of the UCI ban on Russian registered teams after the country's invasion of Ukraine. They played a crucial role in the finale, pulling into the final climb and then leading out at such a pace that they shattered the peloton.

"It's super special because the guys are really strong, they are in the national team for one reason, they have talent. We showed this is a great team," Caruso said.

How it unfolded

The 152km stage from Palma di Montechiaro looked as if it would be one for the breakaway and the fight to make the escape was so intense that no move could be established until nine riders went clear after 30 kilometres of racing.

The group included Mattias Nordal (Biesse-Carrera), Andres Libardo Mancipe Puin (Colombia Tierra de Atletas GW Shimano), Yusuke Kadota (EF Education-Nippo Development Team), Stephen Bassett (Human Powered Health), Stefano Gandin and Giulio Masotto (Team Corratec), Alessandro Iacchi (Team Qhubeka), Federico Burchio (Work Service-Vitalcare-Dynatek), and Cristian Rocchetta (Zalf Euromobile Fior).

The peloton, controlled by the Italian National Team, kept the gap hovering around the three-minute mark for most of the stage. Rocchetta won the first intermediate sprint in Mazzarino after 66.3km of racing. As the route headed up into the hills toward Enna, the gap began to tumble rapidly and by the time the breakaway hit the only classified climb with 36km remaining, their lead was down under a minute thanks to a big pull from the Eolo-Kometa team.

At the base of the climb, Mancipe and Gandin attacked and left their breakaway companions behind. Gandin claimed the maximum points to move into the mountains jersey.

With 30 km to go, the peloton was so close to the two leaders it appeared they would be caught and Mancipe sat up. Gandin wasn't done, however, and he continued to dangle less than a minute ahead of the peloton until inside the 8km to go mark when he was finally brought back in the frantic run-in to the final climb.

Cristian Rico (Colombia Tierra) launched a counter-attack after the catch and he also dangled just out of reach for several kilometres.

A crash in the peloton with 6.2km to go disrupted the chase and split the bunch but the Colombian was reeled in with 4km to go.

The Italian National team then led the reduced bunch into the final ascent, where they expertly launched Caruso to the victory and race lead.