Jonathan Milan takes the first sprint of the Giro d'Italia

The second stage of the Giro d'Italia had the predictable calm development and was decided by sprint in favour of the Italian Bahrain-Victorious Jonathan Milan. No changes in the general classification despite a crash just over 3 kilometres from the finish.

Jonathan Milan's strength prevails in the San Salvo finish line

You'll forgive us. We have been promising for months that the most spectacular Giro in recent years was coming, with a tough and selective route, but three weeks are long and the approach of this first stage in line, still along the Adriatic coast of the Abruzzo region, has stuck to a classic first week route, practically flat, marked by an early breakaway and a sprint resolution, the first of just over half a dozen opportunities for the race's fast men to show off.

A stage with a bland development for the spectator, although with a certain amount of wear and tear as the 200 kilometres are already exceeded in the first few stages, which at an average speed of over 40 km/h is a punishment for the legs that is adding up in the face of the selective stages to come, especially the terrifying third week.

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The breakaway of the day was made up of 5 modest riders, Paul Lapeira (AG2R), Thomas Champion (Cofidis), Mattia Bais (Eolo), Alessandro Verre (Arkéa), Stefano Gandin (Corratec) who set off on the adventure knowing the futility of their effort and with the sole aim of harvesting television time for their respective sponsors and, incidentally, trying to score points on the two small scoring climbs that marked the profile of the day, with the prize of climbing onto the podium as provisional leader of the maglia azzurra classification. An honour that would fall on the shoulders of the AG2R rider.

His adventure came to an end with 34 kilometres to go thanks to the control of Alpecin-Deceuninck and Trek-Segafredo. However, it was not until 15 kilometres to go that the pace really picked up for the finish. Not only on the part of the teams with sprinters but also those of the favourites to protect their leaders in the face of a very fast finish in a first few days where the strength of the majority is intact, many riders want to be at the front and where the danger situations multiply.

In fact, with 3.7 km to go there was a clash, outside the protection zone, among which Mark Cavendish was affected, leaving just a group of about 30 riders ahead to contest the end of the stage, fortunately with all the favourites for the general classification saving the situation. Well, not all of them, as Tao Geoghegan, despite not hitting the ground, was cut and lost 19 valuable seconds.

A very long straight to the finish line where Alpecin-Deceuninck came in and launched hard for Kaden Groves. In the centre of the road, Fernando Gaviria was trying to get ahead of him and for a few moments it looked like it might work out well. However, he did not count on a huge, both in size and strength, Jonathan Milan who, crouched behind Groves' wheel, came out of the slipstream at the last moment to come back with enormous power and take the victory in a resounding way. An unforgettable debut for the Italian in what is his first Giro d'Italia.

Stage 2 Classification

1. Jonathan Milan (Bahrain-Victorious) 4h55’11’’
2. David Dekker (Arkéa-Samsic) +00’’
3. Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +00’’
4. Arne Marit (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) +00’’
5. Marius Mayrhofer (Team DSM) +00’’
6. Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) +00’’
7. Fernando Gaviria (Movistar Team) +00’’
8. Niccolò Bonifazio (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) +00’’
9. Jake Stewart (Groupama-FDJ) +00’’
10. Michael Matthews (Jayco-alUla) +00’’

General Classification

1. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep)
2. Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers) +22’’
3. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +29’’
4. Stefan Kung (Groupama-FDJ) +43’’
5. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) +43’’
6. Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers) +55’’
7. Alekxandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) +55’’
8. Tao Geoghegan Hart (INEOS Grenadiers) +59’’
9. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) +1’00’’
10. Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) +1’05’’