Farrar finds gold at the end of the rainbow

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Tyler Farrar sprinted to victory on stage two of Tirreno-Adriatico in Indicatore as his Garmin-Cervélo squad gave a firm signal of its intentions ahead of Milan-San Remo. The American was able to rely on no less a figure than world champion Thor Hushovd to pilot him to victory in the bunch finish and he assumes the blue jersey from previous leader Lars Boom (Rabobank).

Hushovd expertly wound up the pace in the finishing straight before swinging over to allow his teammate through, and once Farrar hit the front, the victory was never in any serious doubt as Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) couldn't come around him in the sprint.

"The team was perfect and when the world champion is working for you, your motivation is doubled," a delighted Farrar said after the finish.

Although Petacchi was unable to get on terms with Farrar, he still fought gamely to finish second ahead of Juan José Haedo (Saxo Bank-SunGard). After a truncated start to the campaign due to illness, the Italian will at least be satisfied to have a bunch sprint in his legs, his first since last year’s Vuelta a España.

"My age isn't a problem, I don't feel it," Petacchi said. "I just need fortune to favour me and not to be faced with one physical problem after another."

Mark Renshaw (HTC-Highroad) is another man who has reason to be more pleased than his final placing might initially suggest. He seemed primed to lead out Mark Cavendish in the sprint, but the Manxman lost his teammate’s wheel in the finale and Renshaw was left to improvise with a late effort of his own to finish fourth.

It was a difficult day all around for Cavendish, who had been dropped on the earlier climb of the Poggio alla Croce, but as another notable absentee from the front of today’s sprint, Oscar Freire (Rabobank), demonstrated last year, Tirreno-Adriatico performances can often count for little when it comes down to the white heat of Milan-San Remo battle.

Nonetheless, it was certainly Garmin-Cervélo’s day here as the beefed-up squad dominating proceedings in the final 20km to set up the sprint for Farrar, in spite of a flurry of attacks on a brief section of narrow roads 7km from the line.

The prelude to the late aggression was provided by Fabian Cancellara (Leopard Trek), who put in a massive turn on the front that strung out the peloton and gave ample notice that in spite of his failure to clock up a win so far this year, he remains the strongman of the peloton as the Classics come into view.

After Cancellara’s cameo, Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r-La Mondiale) used some local knowledge to put in a speculative dig on a brief uphill drag 6.5km from the line, before Marcus Burghardt (BMC) responded with Maxim Iglinsky (Astana) in tow.

When they were brought to heel with 4km to go, Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Stefano Garzelli (Acqua&Sapone) tried their luck. But as the road widened once more on the approach to the line, they too were swept up as Garmin-Cevélo grabbed the race by the scruff of the neck in the final two kilometres.

Sky attempted to provide a rival train for Edvald Boasson Hagen, but the Norwegian struggled to make an impact in the finale and faded to eighth. Meanwhile, Farrar was locked confidently to Hushovd’s wheel, and the Garmin-Cervélo tandem worked to perfection in the finishing straight.

Problems for Cavendish on the Poggio alla Croce

The big news from the start line in Carrara was that André Greipel (Omega Pharma-Lotto) had been forced to abandon the race as a result of the injuries he sustained in a crash before the previous day’s team time trial. The German’s hopes of Milan-San Remo glory might well have been dealt a fatal blow by missing out on the week’s racing on Italian roads, and Greipel’s chagrin was compounded by the fact that stage two was always destined to end in a mass sprint.

In spite of that gloomy prognosis for breakaways, however, Javier Llorent Aramendia (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Leonardo Giordani (Farnese Neri-Vini Sottoli) and Olivier Kaisen (Omega Pharma-Lotto) were happy to tilt at the windmill, and the trio slipped clear within 3 kilometres of the start.

Indeed, fortune briefly appeared to favour the escapees’ bravery when the peloton was caught behind a level crossing 57km into the stage in the heart of Mario Cipollini country, in Lucca. The race jury opted not to force the break to stop while the peloton was held up, and so Llorent Aramendia, Giordani and Kaisen added a further two minutes to their already swelling advantage.

Once the break’s lead stretched out to 7:30 at the 70km point, however, Katusha decided to take matters in hand and set about forcing the pace at the head of the peloton. Their efforts had a twin effect: not only did they rapidly slice the gap to the lead group, but on the climb of the Poggio alla Croce with 54km to go, the Katusha impetus served to put the sprinters into far more difficulty than they might have anticipated from a cursory glance at the stage profile.

With Danilo Di Luca and Filippo Pozzato prominent at the front, Tom Boonen (Quick Step) was struggling, while Mark Cavendish was distanced and forced to close a gap of over 40 seconds after the descent from the climb. In spite of Katusha’s best efforts, the Manxman safely made it back into the peloton 15km later with the aid of a phalanx of his teammates, but he will be hoping not to suffer a similar fate on a rather more famous Poggio in nine days’ time, where the circumstances will be somewhat less forgiving.

Katusha’s pace-setting brought Llorent Aramandia, Giordani and Kaisen back into the fold 44km from the line, just as Cavendish was about to bridge behind. Vicente Reynes (Omega Pharma-Lotto) was the next man to jump off the front, but although he quickly built up a 30-second lead, he was never going to be given a free pass by the Katusha and Garmin-Cervélo squads and his sortie ended 20km from the line.

With Thor Hushovd’s rainbow jersey a hugely visible presence at the head of affairs in the closing stages, and his efforts dovetailing seamlessly with those of stage winner Tyler Farrar, Garmin-Cervélo’s march towards the Classics continues apace.

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