The rain has descended on us for Stage 2 - will we have a more conventional flat stage today? It is after all, any sprinters last chance of glory in this race.
We waited a while for attacks on Stage 1, no such issue today, Ben Day is off almost from the start. He takes the first climb, and with Kessiakoff no longer interested in the competition, its Ruijgh who takes 2nd - ahead of Stetina and Dionne
This puts Stetina alongside Kessiakoff with 8 points, and Ruijgh on 7.
Crash! Theres a yellow flash and down a rider goes - its Ukrainian champ and Intesa team leader Dmitri Grabovski. With help from a teammate though, he makes it safely back
Time for the next KoM. Day winning takes him to 8 points, Ruijgh's 3 puts him onto 10, and with Dionne crucially beating Stetina, the American only moves to 9 - the jersey is Ruijgh's!
Next to the intermediate sprints of the stage. Day of course, takes both.
The battle behind is slightly weaker than the Stage 1 battles, but still Bongiorno 'wins' both (thus taking 2nd). Mercedes let Baumann go today, saving Sinner's energy, and he takes 3rd in both instances.
After Kessiakoff yesterday, can it be Day's day today? Nope, caught with 20km to go
Into the final 10km, and 6 pairings have come to the front. No need to name them, theyre the 6 exact pairs who went for the intermediate sprints on Stage 1. And considering the form Bongiorno is in, its ominous that Capecchi has already taken him into the lead
And thats still the case by the sprint - as another Intesa rider Lorenzetto tags on. It all remains tight though, and here we go
Now the usual pattern in sprints this year, is that having been delivered to the front by leadouts, the sprinters then wait too long behind their tiring leadouts. Not today! Well, not for Bongiorno anyway - off he goes immediately
The impact is soon clear, thats a good gap - and with Lorenzetto as a rear gunner - and only Te Brake and Rollin following - this looks good
But coming to the final kilometre Bongiorno starts fading, and the locals roar as Rollin takes the lead. Time for Intesa Plan B (or was it Plan A all along?) as Lorenzetto jumps out from behind his Argentine teammate
And the Italian denies a home victory, to take a very well worked victory for Intesa!
Rollin takes 2nd, and with Friedman 4th, thats a good sprint for El Al. In between them in 3rd is Te Brake - with what must surely be the best career result to date for the former Team Ultimate rider.
