Giro d'Italia: Viviani wins sprint in Genoa

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Team Sky bounced back from Saturday’s disappointing performance in the San Remo team time trial thanks to sprinter Elia Viviani, who showed both great speed and judgement to win the Giro d'Italia’s opening road stage into Genoa.

Viviani took the wheel of Moreno Hofland (LottoNL-Jumbo) coming up towards the line. He was therefore well placed as the Dutchman responded quickly when André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) opened up the sprint with 200 metres remaining. When the German began to fade, Hofland went through on his right, only to see Viviani repeat the same manoeuvre in the final 25 metres to claim the stage, his first in a Grand Tour.

"This is incredible for me," said Viviani. "This year I’ve got a new team and new motivation. We’re here to win the Giro with Richie and I don’t have too many guys here for the final, but today the guys did perfect work for Richie and also for me. In the last 3km Salvatore Puccio and then Bernie Eisel did incredible work for me."

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Viviani said he knew Hofland’s was a good wheel to follow after the Dutchman’s victory at the Tour de Yorkshire last week. “I knew he was in good form. Greipel made a really long start to the sprint, perhaps too long. But I knew the final bit was a little bit uphill so I waited for exactly the right moment to start my sprint. I’m really, really happy.”

Sky leader Porte was pleased too, especially after his team’s surprise loss of time in the TTT. “I had most of the team there supporting me, then with 3km to go they took Viviani up to the front, and it was fantastic [to see him win]. It was good for the team after yesterday,” said the Australian. “It was more than we could have expected. It wasn’t an easy stage, but it’s good to be racing and nice to end it with a win.”

Porte’s compatriot Michael Matthews had hoped he might be celebrating victory in Genoa, and the Orica man looked a little deflated despite his seventh place moving him into the overall lead ahead of teammate Simon Gerrans.

“It was quite a technical final. You had to be in a good position going into that final kilometre and we were maybe a little bit far back, so we made the decision to go early from the last corner, but maybe it was a little bit too early,” Matthews explained.

“It was fast all day, it was pretty nervous, everyone was fighting for position in the final. I think the heat may also have had an impact as no one is used to this type of weather, and taken all together it made for a pretty hard final.”

The 177km stage began in straightforward fashion, as five riders emerged after just 2km of racing to form the break of the day. Marco Frapporti (Androni Giocattoli), Lukasz Owsian (CCC Sprandi), Giacomo Berlato (Nippo-Vini Fantini), Eugert Zhupa (Southeast Pro Cycling) and Bert-Jan Lindeman (LottoNL-Jumbo) pushed their advantage out to more than nine minutes after 65km.

At that point Orica began to set the pace behind them to defend Gerrans’ maglia rosa and ensure Matthews was in contention for the sprint. The gap to the break dropped considerably on the day’s only climb with 50km remaining as Tinkoff-Saxo went to the front and set a very fast pace for team leader Alberto Contador, with Astana sitting in close behind them protecting Fabio Aru.

With 40km to the finish, the leading quintet were two and a half minutes clear as Trek and Giant took over pacemaking duties in the peloton. Soon after, the jitters in the peloton began to show as IAM Cycling’s Heinich Haussler, Matteo Pelucchi and Sylvain Chavanel all hit the deck, along with BMC’s Darwin Atapuma and Astana’s Tanel Kangert.

The crashes continued when the peloton reached the finishing circuit in Genoa with 20km remaining. Movistar’s Dayer Quintana and Haussler once again were among those who went down. Unfortunately for Etixx-Quick Step’s Pieter Serry, a broken collarbone ended his race before it had really begun.

The peloton’s nerves and the crashes encouraged Contador to put his team on the front once again, with Aru’s Astana again close behind. They quickly reeled in the break, pushing hard even as riders caught by the crashes tried to chase back across to this main group. Ag2r La Mondiale’s Domenico Pozzovivo was the big loser among the main contenders as a result of this, finishing more than a minute down.

The GC teams only eased off when they were inside the 3km mark, allowing the sprinters’ teams to take over. The work Sky’s Puccio and Eisel paid dividends here, allowing Viviani to move up behind Orica and Lampre as they led into the final kilometre. The Italian then swooped at precisely the moment it counted most.

Expert Analysis: Gianni Savio

I've got to say congratulations to Elia Viviani because a rising sprint finish like that didn't really suit a track rider sprinter like him. Winning here means he's on great form and so totally deserves his success. And importantly he won without a lead out train and that gives his win double value.

We saw quite a few crashes today and people immediately started to ask why they happened. I get the feeling that there's a lot of tension in the peloton, and in this ever more globalised sport of ours people are getting more desperate about getting results. So the risks the riders take are not carefully calculated and have become excessive. That obviously leads to crashes.

There is a risk of more crashes in the next two stages on the twisting roads but let's hope it doesn't happen and that the riders have learnt their lesson today.

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