Fabio Jakobsen takes the first sprint at Tirreno-Adriatico

Strange sprint to finish an almost completely flat stage in which Fabio Jakobsen returned to victory after the stage he won in La Vuelta a San Juan. No changes among the favorites who were able to enjoy a calm and sunny day after the tough conditions of yesterday's time trial.

Jakobsen starts to mark his territory

A flat day and presumably destined to be resolved in a massive finish in the 2nd stage of this Tirreno-Adriatico 2023 in which the cyclists had to face a 210-kilometer route along the Tyrrhenian coast between Camaiore and Follonica, with only a small scoring port in the middle of the stage.

As usual in these days, it was a day for the more modest teams to try to look for a little publicity impact, with 5 riders achieving this small objective: Davide Bais and Mirco Maestri of Eolo-Kometa, Alessandro Iacchi and Stefano Gandin of Corratec and Roland Thalmann of the Tudor Pro Cycling Team, whom the peloton did not let go much further than a minute's gap.

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Meanwhile, the main favorites were relaxing well protected in the group, enjoying the pleasant and sunny day in clear contrast to the heavy rain of the previous day in the opening time trial. The stage only demanded as a point of attention a small hill of one kilometer in the circuit with which the day concluded.

The stage passed without incident, with the breakaway being selected by the mere passing of the kilometers, first Davide Bais and a few kilometers later Stefano Gandin, who had already done well in that stage by crowning first the only difficulty of the stage, which earned him the first green jersey, the color that identifies the leader of the mountains in Tirreno-Adriatico.

With 20 kilometers to go, the survivors of the breakaway were caught and the work of positioning the main teams began. Up to that point, it was Soudal-QuickStep who had carried the weight of the race to keep Jakobsen's chances of victory intact. The small climb had no effect on the configuration of the peloton, leaving the way clear for the sprinters, many and of quality, who have come together in this 2023 edition of Tirreno-Adriatico.

Curious to see in these kilometers the head of a Jumbo-Visma pushed by Wout Van Aert and in parallel, Soudal-QuickStep pulled by another rider of level as Alaphilippe. Movistar was also very active, trying to leave Fernando Gaviria in the best conditions for the exciting sprint that was expected. So does Intermarché-Circus-Wanty for Biniam Girmay.

Entering the last kilometer at full speed, with 500 meters to go, when one of the Soudal-QuickStep men pulled away, there was a sudden stop that Gaviria took advantage of to try to surprise by launching from afar. He almost succeeded but, from behind Jakobsen and Philipsen came like real wolves and finally the victory went to the Soudal-QuickStep rider. Gaviria had to settle for third place in the stage while Girmay and Molano closed the Top 5.

Classification Stage 2

1. Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal-QuickStep) 05:06:33
2. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +00
3. Fernando Gaviria (Movistar Team) +00
4. Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) +00
5. Juan Sebastián Molano (UAE Team Emirates) +00
6. Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorious) +00
7. Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-alUla) +00
8. Simone Consonni (Cofidis) +00
9. Jordi Meeus (Bora-Hansgrohe) +00
10. Nacer Bouhani (Arkéa-Samsic) +00

Overall Classification

1. Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers) 5h19’01’’
2. Lennard Kamna (Bora-Hansgrohe) +28’’
3. Magnus Sheffield (INEOS Grenadiers) +31’’
4. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) +34’’
5. Thymen Arensman (INEOS Grenadiers) +39’’
6. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +41’’
7. Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM) +41’’
8. Casper Pedersen (Soudal-QuickStep) +47’’
9. Wilco Kelderman (Jumbo-Visma) +48’’
10. Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) +48’’