Tirreno-Adriatico 2018: Stage 2

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January 1 - March 13, Camaiore, Italy, Road - WorldTour

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Tirreno-Adriatico stage 1: BMC win team time trial

Stage 2 of Tirreno-Adriatico is emphatically one for the sprinters. The lone difficulty on the 167km leg comes early, with the gruppo facing the climb of Montemagno immediately on leaving the start in Camaiore. The stage is flat thereafter, as the route heads south by way of Pisa and Donoratico, before reaching the finish in Follonica, where the three laps of an 8.3km finishing circuit will give the fast men a couple of looks at the finishing straight on the Viale Italia.

One sprinter who will not be on hand for the expected bunch sprint this afternoon is Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data). The Manxman was a faller in yesterday's team time trial and finished the stage outside the time limit. There was no clemency shown by the commissaires, and Cavendish's preparation for Milan-San Remo has been hugely compromised. Cavendish sustained a broken rib in the crash but would reportedly have been fit to start stage 2 had he not been eliminated. 

167km remaining from 167km

Damiano Caruso (BMC) wears the blue leader's jersey after yesterday's team time trial, where Rohan Dennis impressed in the winning effort. Mitchelton-Scott placed second, 4 seconds down, while Sky were third at 9 seconds.

The general classification picture at the start of stage 2 is as follows:

162km remaining from 167km

Foliforov's most notable victory came when he was the surprise winner of the Alpe di Siusi time trial on the 2016 Giro d'Italia. Today's finish town was, incidentally, the site of another Russian time trial stage win at the Giro. After seizing the maglia rosa at Campitello Matese four days previously, Evgeni Berzin buttressed his lead in the 1994 Giro by winning the stage 8 time trial from Grosseto to Follonica. The favourite, Miguel Indurain, could only manage 4th on the day, conceding 2:34 to Berzin.

152km remaining from 167km

Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) is among the fast men in the Tirreno-Adriatico peloton, and the German is still seeking his first win for his new team. He couldn't have come much closer in Abu Dhabi the other week, and he struck an optimistic note ahead of today's stage. "I'm 100 percent convinced the victory is coming," says Kittel. You can read the full story here.

143km remaining from 167km

Chris Froome (Team Sky) is riding Tirreno-Adriatico this week despite returning a positive test for salbutamol at last year's Vuelta a Espana. It is, of course, his right to compete until the case is resolved, even though his decision not to withhold himself from racing jars somewhat with his previous claim of "I take my leadership position in my sport very seriously." No matter, Froome is here, although UCI president David Lappartient told the BBC yesterday that if the case is not resolved before the Tour de France, he might ask Froome to consider sitting out La Grande Boucle. "I think if we have no decision of course before the Tour de France I will ask them to reconsider maybe their position," said Lappartient, who also wants the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation to investigate Team Sky in the wake of the publication of the select committee report on doping in British sport. Read the full story here.

132km remaining from 167km

And then there were three. Bagioli has sat up from the break, leaving Foliforov, Mosca and Sagiv at the head of the race. BMC, meanwhile, have upped the pace in the peloton, and the gap has dropped back inside five minutes.

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Foliforov is the virtual overall leader, and the Russian is currently taking the most generous turns at the head of the break.

Tom Dumoulin has taken a diplomatic line when discussing the Chris Froome case, though he repeated yesterday that if he were in the Sky rider's position, he would not be able to race as his Sunweb team are part of the MPCC. The Dutchman, who helped Sunweb to fifth place in yesterday's team time trial, is at Tirreno-Adriatico to prepare for the defence of his Giro d'Italia title - but the Tour de France might also yet feature on his programme. Read more here.

97km remaining from 167km

Our man in Tuscany Stephen Farrand spoke with Chris Froome before the start in Camaiore this morning. The Team Sky rider was less than enamored with UCI president David Lappartient's suggestion that he sit out the Tour de France if his case is not resolved. “Given his concern for the reputation of the sport, I think it would be more sensible of him to raise his concerns in person or at least though the right channels as opposed to through the media," Froome said. Read the full story here.

Foliforov, Mosca and Sagiv are continuing to combine well at the head of the race, and their buffer has reached 7:25

87km remaining from 167km

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Tirreno-Adriatico is one of two WorldTour races taking place today, of course. Patrick Fletcher has updates from stage 5 of Paris-Nice here.

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The injection in pace in the peloton coincides with the approach to the first intermediate sprint at Donoratico with 59km to go. They won't reel in the escapees by then, but they might well claw them back ahead of the second bonus sprint when the race reaches Follonica for the first time with 25km to go.

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The peloton trundles through the same point a little under three minutes behind the trio of escapees.

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A puncture for Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe), who is chasing his way back on. The Pole is on familiar terrain. He raced in Tuscany as an amateur and recently denied any links to the Altopack doping investigation in Italy.

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There's a left-hand turn from wide to narrower road with a little under 3 kilometres to go on this circuit, and one imagines that will be pivotal on the final lap.

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Luke Durbridge (Mitchelton-Scott) hits the front once again on behalf of Caleb Ewan. The Australian has impressed this afternoon.

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A delegation from Lotto Soudal hits the front in support of Jens Debusschere. In keeping with the tenor of bunch finishes this season, this looks like being a free-for-all. No one team will manage to control this.

7km remaining from 167km

Damiano Caruso (BMC) is still in this front group, which looks to be around 40 riders strong. Peter Sagan and Fernandro Gaviria are also in here.

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Katusha-Alpecin lead out the sprint for Kittel...

KIttel has to go from a long, long way. Sagan is on his wheel...

Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) wins stage 2 of Tirreno-Adriatico.

Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) took second place ahead of Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo).

Rick Zabel produced a long, long lead-out, but Kittel showed considerable strength to hold off Sagan, who was perched on his wheel as the sprint began.

Michal Kwiatkowski (Sky) placed 4th ahead of Patrick Bevin (BMC), who will inherit the blue leader's jersey from his teammate Damiano Caruso.

Fernando Gaviria could only manage 7th in a chaotic sprint, just behind Jakub Mareczko.

Result:

Result:

General classification after stage 2:

 

It looks as though most of the GC contenders managed to emerge unscathed from that crash in the finale and finish in the front group. Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) was involved, however, and he has dropped away from his position near the head of the overall standings.

Marcel Kittel speaks: "I’ve been waiting a long time for this victory now. Since the beginning of the season not everything was always working perfect and we tried very hard, and finally we got this victory as a reward. I’m very happy, the team did a very good job today. I have to say a big, big thank you to everyone for helping me. I think this is a big boost for the whole group."

This was, incidentally, Kittel's first ever professional victory in Italy. His four Giro stage wins have all come in the opening days of foreign starts - he won a brace in Ireland in 2014 and added a pair in the Netherlands in 2016. His last win on Italian roads came as an amateur in 2008, in the Memorial Davide Fardelli time trial, when he beat Alan Marangoni and Adriano Malori over 23km.

“I’m very happy because this is my first professional victory in Italy, and that makes me proud,” Kittel says, noting that it’s also his first in Katusha red. “It’s always a mental challenge to deal with this, but I benefit from the years I’ve been a professional, with all the experience I’m able to handle this situation. I was always motivated every race, but in the first races this year not everything was going well, which is normal and expected. This is a big relief now. I’m very happy to win in Tirreno, it’s a big race, a big first victory for me this season and the whole team.”

Patrick Bevin (BMC) speaks after taking hold of the blue jersey: "It kind of just came about. It's a stage where we didn't have to work, my teammates kind of teed me up to have a sprint, we don't have a guy to sprint and they were keen to have me have a go in the final. I got caught behind that crash on the final lap and only just got back on but had a pretty good go through the bunch as it was spread out. It's a weird feeling to take a jersey off a teammate but the plan for the week doesn't change.

Stefan Kung (BMC) was among the fallers in the crash, and he went to hospital for a check-up after the stage finish.

Over at Paris-Nice, meanwhile, Jerome Cousin has won stage 5, while Luis Leon Sanchez retains the overall lead. The details are here.

Result:

Thanks for joining our live coverage of Tirreno-Adriatico this afternoon. You can find a full report, results and pictures here. We'll be back with more tomorrow, and in the meantime all the news and reaction from Follonica will be on Cyclingnews.

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