Kittel wins Giro d'Italia stage 2 in Belfast

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Talked up as the outstanding favourite for the opening road stage of the Giro d’Italia in Belfast, Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano) fully lived up to that status. Coming out of a tight left-hand turn with 300 metres to go, FDJ.fr’s Nacer Bouhanni was the first to open up his sprint, but once Kittel got his gear spinning he bulleted past the Frenchman to win by three bike-lengths.

Bouhanni held on to finish second, ahead of a quartet of Italian sprinters, who were led in by Trek Factory Racing’s Giacomo Nizzolo.

Eighth place for Michael Matthews was enough to move him into the maglia rosa at the expense of teammate Svein Tuft. Matthews only needed to finish ahead of Tuft on the day to take the lead, but a split in the bunch behind the sprinters moved the Australian sprinter three seconds clear of his Orica-GreenEdge teammates following their success in yesterday’s team time trial.

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Kittel’s victory means that the German has now taken stage wins in each of the Grand Tours. Although very impressive in the end, he acknowledged that the wet conditions had made the sprint tough, especially on that last corner.

"It was not so easy today to stay in front with the team, I lost them a few times," admitted Kittel. "I managed to get up to the front just after the last corner. It was a very hard day with all the rain. The boys did an amazing job, and especially Tom Stamsnijder, to get the group back. I’m very proud to have won the stage."

The people of Northern Ireland can be proud too. Despite the rain, they once again turned out in their tens of thousands, lining the route three and four deep in every town and village, and turning out in huge numbers at the start and finish in Belfast.

After a flurry of attacks soon after the start, Belkin’s Maarten Tjallingii was the first rider to get a decent gap on the bunch. The Dutch veteran was quickly joined by Team Colombia’s Jeffry Johan Romero Corredor, Lotto-Belisol’s Sander Armee and Andrea Fedi (Neri Sottoli-Yellow Fluo).

As GreenEdge set a steady pace on the front of the peloton, this quartet opened up a lead of six-and-a-half minutes by the time they went through Ballymena, with 44km covered. The bunch then held the break’s advantage at between five and six minutes until well into the second half of the 219km stage.

The presence of two fourth-category climbs guaranteed one of the leading quartet a trip up onto the podium as the first leader of the mountains competition, and that honour went to Tjallingii. He bested his rivals on both occasions, making him the first Dutch rider to wear the Giro’s mountains jersey since 2005.

By the time the Belkin man led over the second KoM with 24km remaining, the break’s advantage was little more than a minute. But it wasn’t until the bunch was in the final 10km that it began to chase hard, with Cannondale setting the pace in order to keep team leader Ivan Basso out of trouble. BMC Racing were up there too, looking after Cadel Evans.

With 8km remaining, by which point he’d been at the front for more than 200km, Tjallingii accelerated away from Fedi and Armee, Romero having dropped off their pace moments before. With his advantage just 30 seconds, Tjallingii was never likely to hold off the peloton, but he put up a great fight, finally yielding with 3.5km to the finish.

No one team really had control during the closing moments. Trek, Sky, Orica, Giant-Shimano and FDJ all steamed through to set the pace as the finish neared, knowing that it was crucial to get their sprinter into a good position going into that final corner.

FDJ and Giant managed this better than anyone, Bouhanni zipping past Kittel’s lead-out man as the sprint was launched, only to see the powerful German rocket by on his left. Kittel will be looking for a repeat when stage three finishes in Dublin tomorrow.

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