Farrar fastest in Utrecht

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Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions) came back from a crash of his own to win the crash-marred finale of the Giro d'Italia's second stage into Utrecht on Sunday. The 25-year-old American, who collided with a traffic island inside of 55km remaining, out-kicked Matthew Goss (Team HTC-Columbia) and Fabio Sabatini (Liquigas-Doimo) in a sprint from a diminished 58-rider lead group, the remains of a shattered peloton after a mass-crash with 7.2km remaining split the field.

The large crash disrupted the lead-out trains of several teams, but Farrar's Garmin-Transitions lead-out contingent of David Millar, Murilo Fischer and Julian Dean avoided the carnage, bided their time and brought Farrar to the head of affairs at the flamme rouge. Farrar came through the final 90 degree right hand turn with 250 metres remaining in third place, behind Chris Sutton (Team Sky) and Dean.

Farrar powered out of Dean's slipstream on the finishing straight and held off Goss and Sabatini to win the first Giro d'Italia stage of his career. The Garmin-Transitions sprinter has now won stages in two Grand Tours, having previously won stage 12 of the 2009 Vuelta a España.

"Its fantastic to have won," said Farrar. "It's certainly one of the special ones. Last year was a breakthrough year winning what I did. It feels good to be where I am this year. To win the first sprint is nice. It takes some pressure off the rest of the race."

Farrar was one of numerous riders to crash during the stage, many involving the narrow roads and traffic islands common to racing in the Netherlands.

"It's always nervous on the first few day of a Grand Tour, everyone is working off the cobwebs I guess and fighting to be near the front even when it's not really necessary. But that's just the way it goes.

"Any time you race in Holland you have a lot of things in the road. Everyone knows it's like that and when you have a nervous peloton, it adds to that a little bit. I hope nobody was hurt too badly in the crashes. You never like to see someone injured on the very first day of a Grand Tour. But that's just bike racing. There's nothing you can do about it."

Also present in the lead peloton were general classification contenders Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) and Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana). Overnight leader Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky), however, finished in the second group 37 seconds behind Farrar and slipped out of the race lead.

Wiggins, too, was one of many riders who crashed during en route to Utrecht as the maglia rosa wearer was brought down in mass pileup with 40km remaining in the stage. The 30-year-old Briton was escorted by his Sky teammates back to the front of the peloton, but Wiggins was delayed in the crash with 7.2km to the finish and could not regain contact with the leading group.

Evans assumes maglia rosa from Wiggins

Evans took over the maglia rosa and now leads Farrar by one second and Vinokourov by three seconds.For Evans, it's the second maglia rosa of his career having worn the Giro's leader's jersey for one day in the 2002 edition and the first by an Australian since 2005 when Brett Lancaster won the prologue.

"I'm already in pink but there is still a long way to go," said Evans. "I have the same idea to have it at the end as in 2002 but this time I wear it early in the race. Last time it was towards the end.

"We will not look at keeping the jersey at any cost tomorrow. Farrar is only one second behind me. I'm not going to look for bonus seconds on the road tomorrow against him. But I'll drop him off on the Zoncolan if he’s still there!"

Evans emerged unscathed at the end of a stage in which many of the peloton suffered crashes. "Today was one of the most ridiculously dangerous stages I've seen in my career. It’s not because of the course. I don't know why everybody is so nervous this year.

"Here in Holland you take a Grand Tour group of riders and you put them on these roads that are more for Classics riders. I've seen many riders very nervous today, too nervous. When it’s dangerous like this, experience counts but also luck.

"Some riders like Sastre have lost a bit of time today. We count by seconds today but it’s gonna be by minutes in the end of the Giro."

Traffic islands wreak havoc

Another cool, overcast day greeted the Giro peloton in the Netherlands as the riders tackled the 210km stage two from Amsterdam to Utrecht. Four riders soon formed the first break of the Giro and after 60km of racing the quartet of Paul Voss (Milram), Rick Flens (Rabobank), Stefano Pirazzi (Colnago - CSF Inox) and Mauro Facci (Quick Step) led the Sky-controlled peloton by 5:08.

The peloton was content to let the quartet have their glory before ramping up the pace in anticipation of the expected bunch finish. The escapees swept up all of the mid-stage rewards on tap including two KOMs at 88.7km, taken by Pirazzi, and 100.5km, won by Voss, plus an intermediate sprint in Houten at 157.8km also won by Voss.

Following the sprint in Houten, Facci was dropped from the break while the remaining trio held a six minute advantage with 52km to the finish in Utrecht. On what should have been a routine chipping away of the break's lead, the peloton's effort were disrupted by several large crashes, frequently involving traffic islands.

One of the incidents involved overnight race leader Bradley Wiggins who went down in a crash with approximately 30 other riders at 40km-to-go. This crash unfortunately led to the withdrawal Martin Kohler (BMC Racing Team), the first rider to abandon the 2010 Giro d'Italia.

Despite the disruptions to the pursuit of Voss, Pirazzi and Flens, when Wiggins regained contact with the field at 35km to go the break's lead had dropped to 1:20 under the impetus of Team Sky, Astana and Team HTC-Columbia.

The cooperation amongst the leading trio came to a halt with 32km remaining as Voss launched an attack. Rabobank's Flens brought back Voss and the Dutchman, eager to put on a show on home soil, launched an attack of his own on the outskirts of Utrecht. The powerful Dutchman motored along in front of huge crowds lining the streets, but was swept up by the Sky-led peloton with 24km remaining to the finish.

The peloton successfully negotiated the twists, turns and narrow roads for the next 17km until a final, mass crash took down nearly 50 riders with 7.2km remaining to the finish. While the riders tried as quickly as possible to get back on their bikes and rejoin the front of the race, Filippo Pozzato (Katusha) looked to be the most seriously hurt, but the Italian champion, too, slowly got back on his bike after being examined by medical staff.

A diminished peloton still sped onwards to the finish, but several of the sprinters' lead-out trains were missing horsepower due to the crash. HTC-Columbia set tempo for André Greipel until Farrar's Garmin-Transition team took over entering the final kilometre. Farrar was perfectly positioned into the final turn at 250 metres to go and jumped off teammate Julian Dean's wheel to take the first Giro d'Italia win of his career.

Tight contest for first climber's jersey

The Giro d'Italia's first mountains classification jersey was awarded after stage two during which the peloton tackled a pair of Category 3 ascents at 88.7km and 100.5km. The four-man break of the day containing Paul Voss (Milram), Rick Flens (Rabobank), Stefano Pirazzi (Colnago - CSF Inox) and Mauro Facci (Quick Step) vied for the green jersey and presented a puzzle for the judges at the stage conclusion as Voss, Flens and Pirazzi each earned four points. Pirazzi took the first climb ahead of Flens and Voss, while Voss won the second climb in front of Flens and Pirazzi.

With Voss and Pirazzi each winning an identically ranked climb the tie breaker was decided by general classification time, which gave the climber's jersey to Voss.

"That is the biggest success in my career," said Voss, who this year has already worn the leader's jersey in a ProTour race, the Volta a Catalunya. "I went to my limits today. In the end I didn't even know how it had turned out. The Italian Pirazzi and I had to wait a long time for the ranking to be figured out."

Voss, however, had a frightening encounter with the Quick Step team car in the finale of the stage. "Shortly before the finish, I ended up going from full speed to the back seat of a team car, which had suddenly opened its door. Fortunately I wasn't injured but from there on I fought my way to the finish in a trance."