Boonen powers to victory over Martens

After being foiled by a break on Tirreno-Adriatico's opener yesterday, the sprinters had their day in Montecatini Terme with Tom Boonen (Quick Step) taking an emphatic victory on the second stage. The Belgian national champion out-kicked Paul Martens (Rabobank) and Daniele Bennati (Liquigas-Doimo) in the bunch gallop to take his first-ever win on Italian soil.

Bennati's Liquigas teammates had the peloton strung out single file under the flamme rouge and provided the Italian with a strong lead-out, but Bennati had no answer for Boonen who jumped to the right off his wheel with 200m remaining.

"I'm extremely satisfied," said Boonen. "Throughout my career I've won at all latitudes, a little all over the world, but I had never won in Italy. I like Italy a lot and I also like Italian races; with this success I've made up for a little something that was missing on my resume, and I'm really happy.

"It’s an important victory that gives me and all the team some hope and faith. The next few days here at the Tirreno-Adriatico will be very important to further fine-tune our condition as we look forward to the great events of the starting season, the first of which will surely be the Milano-Sanremo. I was motivated for the classics before I even arrived in Italy and now, after this success, I'm even more so."

The victory is the 29-year-old Belgian's fourth of the season and first in Europe following his three wins in Qatar and Oman earlier this year.

Foursome fights till stage finale

The break of the day lasted well into the endgame of the 165km stage and was caught with only 3.5km remaining. The lead quartet, containing Alan Marangoni (Colnago-CSF Inox), Alan Perez Lezaun (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Diego Caccia (ISD-Neri) and Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha), escaped 11km into the stage and managed to eke out a lead of more than four minutes before being absorbed under the impetus of Liquigas-Doimo, Sky and Garmin-Transitions on the last of four 14.5km finishing circuits.

Ignatiev launched a solo counterattack just as the break was about to be caught, but his effort was nullified by a Liquigas-led peloton after only an additional few hundred metres of freedom.

Overnight race leader Linus Gerdemann (Milram) remains in the maglia azzura, but is tied on time with Boonen. Spain's Pablo Lastras Garcia (Caisse d'Epargne) dropped from second to third and sits four seconds back.

"We worked hard today to defend the blue jersey," said Christian Henn, Milram directeur sportif. "We were able to accomplish this and of course are happy to continue to lead. Tomorrow will be a similar day to today, from profile as well as from our assignments."