Giro d'Italia: Greipel sprints to stage 2 victory

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André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) powered his way to the win of the second stage of the Giro d'Italia, easily winning the mass sprint ahead of Roberto Ferrari (UAE Team Emirates) and Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo). The big German also took over the race lead.

Orica Scott had done most of the lead out work for the sprint, with Caleb Ewan looking for the win. Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) was the first to jump, followed closely by Ewan, who pulled his foot from a pedal last second. German champion Greipel turned on his speed and crossed the line first. Ewan ultimately finished ninth.

Greipel has now won a stage in every Grand Tour he has ridden since 2008.

"It was not an easy day," he said. "This win is for them [his teammates] and for my mother."

The stage was marked by a long breakaway of five, including Dimension Data's Daniel Teklehaimanot, who was also in the previous day's escape. He won the final climb of the day, gaining enough points to give him the King of the Mountains jersey, the first Eritrean to ever wear that jersey.

Shortly after that final summit, the last of the break group was gathered up and Bahrain Merida controlled the field until it was time for the sprinters' teams to take over, leading to the bunch kick that put Greipel into the pink jersey.

How it unfolded

Sun and strong winds greeted the riders in Olbia at midday, as they set out on the very rolling 221 kilometers to Tortoli. An ambitious break seemed obvious on the lumpy profile, but the one that formed was smaller than expected. Lukasz Owsian (CCC), Ilia Koshevoy (Willier), Evgeny Shalunov (Gazprom) and Simone Andreetta (Bardiani), were in the group, along with Dimension Data's Daniel Teklehaimanot. The Eritrean rider was looking to score more points and slip into the King of the Mountain jersey, which he had also worn briefly in the 2015 Tour de France.

The field was happy to let them go on this long and difficult stage. There were only two ranked climbs, but most of the race was a relentless up and down. The only really flat section was the final nine kilometers into the finish.

Bora-Hansgrohe, protecting surprise stage 1 winner Lukas Pöstlberger, let the gap grow up to nearly six and a half minutes before starting the chase 44 kilometers into the stage.

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Teklehaimanot showed that he was serious about defending his lead in the sprint ranking, as he attacked to take the maximum number of points at the first intermediate sprint. The gap had dropped to five minutes by then.

Astana eventually moved to the front, and the gap dropped more quickly. It was near the three-minute mark with 124 kilometres to go. That encouraged BMC to help with the chase as well, with Lotto-Jumbo later taking their place.

The wind started picking up as the course went up higher in the hills, causing some problems for the five-man group. But the gap jumped as well as the field started up the first ranked climb of the stage, the third-category Nuoro.

There seemed to be some confusion as to where the mountain points would be taken, as the group started sprinting far too early. Andreetta finally made the right move and was first over the line, with Teklehaimanot missing out on the maximum points, finishing third. The field came across 4:28 later.

The first raindrops were noticed on the ascent, and continued on the descent, adding a layer of danger. With 100 kilometres still to go, the gap was back to 3:30. Fortunately, the light rain sprinkles soon stopped.

With 82 kilometres left, the gap had dropped under three minutes for the first time. From there it went rapidly, hitting two minutes only 10 km later. Teklehaimanot was again successful at the second intermediate sprint.

As the gap dropped to under a minute, attacks from within the break group started. In the end, Owsian was dropped. Further back, both Greipel and Ewan were both still in the peloton, but Bora-Hansgrohe's sprinting option Sam Bennett, said to be ill, had fallen back.

35 seconds were all that remained with 50 kilometres left, and the next mountaintop only three kilometres away. That was enough for Andreetta, who dropped. Shalunov attacked again but Teklehaimanot was able to follow. Koshevoy had been momentarily dropped but caught up again.

With the three leaders in sight nearing the top, attacks began out of the peloton. It looked as if they would be caught before the summit but Teklehaimanot refused to give in and took off to claim the points, enough to give him the king of the mountains jersey at the end of the stage.

He was caught again shortly thereafter and Vincenzo Nibali's Bahrain Merida team took to the front of the field. Nathan Haas (Dimension Data) and Davide Martinelli (Quick-Step Floors) were the first to seek their chances on the descent. They never had more than about 10 seconds and were soon caught again.

Bahrain Merida kept things firmly under control on the long downhill. Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) had been suffering all day and was finally dropped for good. The Italian champion had been doubtful about his chances coming into the race, having only had four days of racing all year due to knee problems.

Despite some risk-taking, all riders made it safely down the mountain and enthusiastically went into the 9km long flat run-in to the finish.

Katusha captain Ilnur Zakarin had a mechanical problem and took the bike of a teammate, forcing him to chase furiously back onto the bunch. His whole team moved back to help him back up, towing a number other riders as well. The Russian ultimately reconnected with the peloton, only to find himself caught behind a split in the finale. The split cost Zakarin 20 seconds at the line, give him a bit of ground to make up in the general classification battle.

Caleb Ewan was determined to make up for the previous day, when he finished second, and his Orica-Scott team moved to the front early on. Lotto Soudal was up front at the two-kilometre marker, with André Greipel safely tucked in position.

Gaviria was the first to launch in the sprint, on the right hand side of the road, coming up from behind. Ewan pulled out to go with him. The Australian suffered a mechanical problem within sight of the finish line, however, presumably dropping his chain. Meanwhile, Greipel turned on the turbo and surged into the lead, powering his way across the finish line in first.

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