Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) was the strongest in the chaotic stage 2 sprint finish in Tel Aviv at the Giro d’Italia. The Italian lost his lead-out train but played it cool to beat Jakub Mareczko (Wilier Triestina) and Sam Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe).
Rohan Dennis (BMC) made up for his disappointment in losing Friday’s opening time trial by two seconds to Tom Dumoulin by winning the second intermediate sprint and moving one second clear of the Dutchman in the general classification
Enrico Barbin, of Bardiani–CSF, was the first to the summit in the solitary climb in the second stage to clinch the blue jersey in Tel Aviv.
Viviani was well off the pace with less than two kilometers to go but the Italian powered home to win comfortably ahead of Mareczko and Bennett.
“It wasn’t easy to win. I’m usually calm but it wasn’t easy to do well after a good start to season but then a stop, then starting again. I felt the pressure that I was the rider to beat,” Viviani said.
“It was difficult to stay together in the finale, so I used the team to keep the speed high. Then I got on Bennett’s wheel. The others hesitated but I knew somebody would do something and was ready. When Mareczko I got on him and then did my sprint. It was important to read it right.”
Giro d’Italia 2018 – stage 2 results (Haifa – Tel Aviv):
| 1 | Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) | 3:51:20 |
| 2 | Jakub Mareczko (Wilier Triestina-Selle Italia) | ,, |
| 3 | Sam Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 4 | Niccolo Bonifazio (Bahrain-Merida) | ,, |
| 5 | Sacha Modolo (EF Education First-Drapac) | ,, |
| 6 | Clement Venturini (AG2R La Mondiale) | ,, |
| 7 | Ryan Gibbons (Dimension Data) | ,, |
| 8 | Manuel Belletti (Androni-Sidermec-Bottecchia) | ,, |
| 9 | Baptiste Planckaert (Katusha-Alpecin) | ,, |
| 10 | Jean-Pierre Drucker (BMC) | ,, |
| 11 | Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 12 | Kristian Sbaragli (Israel Cycling Academy) | ,, |
| 13 | Paolo Simion (Bardiani-CSF) | ,, |
| 14 | Viacheslav Kuznetsov (Katusha-Alpecin) | ,, |
| 15 | Danny Van Poppel (LottoNl-Jumbo) | ,, |
| 16 | Alex Dowsett (Katusha – Alpecin) | ,, |
| 17 | Nico Denz (AG2R La Mondiale) | ,, |
| 18 | Mads Würtz Schmidt (Katusha – Alpecin) | ,, |
| 19 | Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 20 | Zakkari Dempster (Israel Cycling Academy) | ,, |
General classification after stage 2:
| 1 | Rohan Dennis (BMC) | 4:03:21 |
| 2 | Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) | +02” |
| 3 | Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal) | ,, |
| 4 | José Gonçalves (Katusha-Alpecin) | +12” |
| 5 | Alex Dowsett (Katusha-Alpecin) | +16” |
| 6 | Pello Bilbao (Astana) | +18” |
| 7 | Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | +20” |
| 8 | Maximilian Schachmann (Quick-Step Floors) | +21” |
| 9 | Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin) | +27” |
| 10 | Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida) | ,, |
| 11 | Carlos Betancur (Movistar) | +28” |
| 12 | Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates) | +29” |
| 13 | Mads Würtz Schmidt (Katusha-Alpecin) | +30” |
| 14 | Felix Grossschartner (Bora-hansgrohe) | +31” |
| 15 | Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) | +32” |
| 16 | Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) | +33” |
| 17 | Tom Scully (EF Education First-Drapac) | +34” |
| 18 | Patrick Konrad (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 19 | Georg Preidler (Groupama-FDJ) | ,, |
| 20 | Rémi Cavagna (Quick-Step Floors) | +35” |
