Andre Greipel wins first maglia rosa on Giro d'Italia stage two
Lotto-Soudal's Andre Greipel won his first maglia rosa after winning the sprint at the end of a painfully slow stage two of the 2017 Giro d'Italia as an unfortunate clash in the final metres cost Orica-Scott's Caleb Ewan.
Griepel was led out to perfection and easily beat UAE Team Emirates' Roberto Ferrari, but Ewan will rue a clash with Quick-Step Floors' Fernando Gaviria that made his left foot unclip from his pedal while launching his sprint inside the final 100 metres.
"It was a very hard day – six hours on the bike with a headwind. I’m really proud of my teammates who supported me. I’m really proud of this stage win and the pink jersey, which I dedicate to my teammates and my mother", said a proud Greipel.
Stage two had been looked at as a stage too lumpy for the sprinters to stick with the main group of riders, but a painfully slow average speed of 36.295 kilometres per hour meant that after over six hours of riding the sprinters' teams still had enough energy in reserve to produce a competitive sprint.
Ewan hit the front with Greipel before a bump with Gaviria resulted in the Aussie unclipping from his left pedal and completely halting his momentum, leaving him frustrated and banging his bars.
Greipel now commands general classification, with four seconds advantage on yesterday's winner, Bora-Hansgrohe's Lukas Postlberger, eight seconds ahead of Ewan and Ferrari, with Jasper Stuyven of Trek Segafredo ten seconds down in fifth.
Greipel also now has the cyclamen jersey for leading the points classification ahead of Dimension Data's Daniel Teklehaimanot, who in turn wears the blue jersey as leader of the King of the Mountains classification.
Most commentators had prophesied that the hilly 221km stage from Olbia to Tortoli would be too much for the sprinters, so the break was allowed much more breathing room than the more or less flat stage one, and so a group of five - Daniel Teklehaimanot (Dimension Data), Lukasz Owsian (CCC), Simone Andreetta (Bardiani), Evgeny Shalunov (Gazprom) and Ilia Koshevoy (Willier Selle Italia) - established an early advantage of six minutes over the peloton fronted by the Bora-Hansgrohe team protecting the maglia rosa, points jersey and King of the Mountains jersey they had claimed on stage one.
Andreeta took the points at the third category climb at Nuoro, out sprinting Teklehaimanot and Shalunov. In coming second, Teklehaimanot, drew himself within four points of blue jersey holder Cesare Benedetti, with the category two Genna Silana still to come.
Owsian was dropped as the ascent of Genna Silana began, the point of the race where we would see if any sprinters could stay in contention into the finishing stages or whether the climb would prove too tough.
The remaining break of Teklehaimanot and Shalunov was caught one kilometre from the top of Genna Silana (50km to go), but the Eritrean national champion was determined to be KOM at the end of the day and keenly sprinted away from Shalunov and the front of the peloton to take 15 points and the blue KOM jersey from Benedetti, whose only concern was protecting the Postlberger's maglia rosa.
Even as the terrain flattened out in the last nine kilometres the pace only marginally picked up, fortunately for general classification contender, Ilnur Zakarin, who had to rely on his Katusha-Alpecin teammates to drop back and pace him back to the peloton after an issue while he was well outside the three kilometre to go safety zone.
The race really quickened in the closing moments, with the sprint trains leading their men onto the dead-straight finish. Greipel managed to take the win with another sprint finish on the cards for stage three - 148km from Tortoli to Cagliari.
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| Credit: cyclingweekly.com |
"It was a very hard day – six hours on the bike with a headwind. I’m really proud of my teammates who supported me. I’m really proud of this stage win and the pink jersey, which I dedicate to my teammates and my mother", said a proud Greipel.
Stage two had been looked at as a stage too lumpy for the sprinters to stick with the main group of riders, but a painfully slow average speed of 36.295 kilometres per hour meant that after over six hours of riding the sprinters' teams still had enough energy in reserve to produce a competitive sprint.
Ewan hit the front with Greipel before a bump with Gaviria resulted in the Aussie unclipping from his left pedal and completely halting his momentum, leaving him frustrated and banging his bars.
Greipel now commands general classification, with four seconds advantage on yesterday's winner, Bora-Hansgrohe's Lukas Postlberger, eight seconds ahead of Ewan and Ferrari, with Jasper Stuyven of Trek Segafredo ten seconds down in fifth.
Greipel also now has the cyclamen jersey for leading the points classification ahead of Dimension Data's Daniel Teklehaimanot, who in turn wears the blue jersey as leader of the King of the Mountains classification.
Most commentators had prophesied that the hilly 221km stage from Olbia to Tortoli would be too much for the sprinters, so the break was allowed much more breathing room than the more or less flat stage one, and so a group of five - Daniel Teklehaimanot (Dimension Data), Lukasz Owsian (CCC), Simone Andreetta (Bardiani), Evgeny Shalunov (Gazprom) and Ilia Koshevoy (Willier Selle Italia) - established an early advantage of six minutes over the peloton fronted by the Bora-Hansgrohe team protecting the maglia rosa, points jersey and King of the Mountains jersey they had claimed on stage one.
Andreeta took the points at the third category climb at Nuoro, out sprinting Teklehaimanot and Shalunov. In coming second, Teklehaimanot, drew himself within four points of blue jersey holder Cesare Benedetti, with the category two Genna Silana still to come.
Owsian was dropped as the ascent of Genna Silana began, the point of the race where we would see if any sprinters could stay in contention into the finishing stages or whether the climb would prove too tough.
The remaining break of Teklehaimanot and Shalunov was caught one kilometre from the top of Genna Silana (50km to go), but the Eritrean national champion was determined to be KOM at the end of the day and keenly sprinted away from Shalunov and the front of the peloton to take 15 points and the blue KOM jersey from Benedetti, whose only concern was protecting the Postlberger's maglia rosa.
Even as the terrain flattened out in the last nine kilometres the pace only marginally picked up, fortunately for general classification contender, Ilnur Zakarin, who had to rely on his Katusha-Alpecin teammates to drop back and pace him back to the peloton after an issue while he was well outside the three kilometre to go safety zone.
The race really quickened in the closing moments, with the sprint trains leading their men onto the dead-straight finish. Greipel managed to take the win with another sprint finish on the cards for stage three - 148km from Tortoli to Cagliari.
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