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Team Sky’s Elia Viviani proved to be the smartest of the sprinters, timing his run to the line to perfection to take out the first full stage of the 2015 Giro D’Italia.
The Italian went into the stage finish with no team around him but out-foxed the better supported favourites, Lotto-Soudal’s Andre Greipel and Orica GreenEdge’s Michael Matthews, who ran in third and seventh respectively.
Viviani drafted behind first Matthews and then second place winner Moreno Hofland (LottoNL-Jumbo), waiting until the last 50 meters to launch his sprint on the slight uphill finish.
It wasn’t all bleak for Matthews though as he managed to avoid a number of crashes to capitalise on stage one’s winning team time trial and take the pink overall leader’s jersey, repeating his memorable start to the 2014 Giro where he held the Maglia Rosa for the first week.
Being part of the final sprint was a feat in itself with numerous riders going down in the final 15 kilometers as the race grew more and more tense.
Australian national champion Henrich Haussler was among the riders who took a fall and general classification hopeful Dominico Pozovivo (AG2R-La Mondial) lost over a minute as the peloton splintered in the final kilometers.
Ultimately Pozovivo and his team paid the price for poor positioning in the bunch, a mistake not made by any of the other favourites whose teams were a constant presence at the front throughout the day’s race.
In the other classifications tour debutante Bert-Jan Lindeman managed to snag the King of the Mountain’s jersey while in the breakaway and Viviani’s win will put him to the top of the point’s classification.
Viviani’s win for team Sky could prove a blessing in disguise for Richie Porte’s general classification campaign, no doubt relieving some of the pressure on the team to gain results.
There is even a chance that Viviani could take another win with Stage 3 being a similar sprinter’s stage, although this time with a few more hills.
Another man hungry for a win will be Orica’s Michael Matthews who will be happy to be wearing pink but has to be disappointed with his Stage 2 showing, particularly after receiving such strong team support.
The young Australian holds himself to a high standard and he will be looking forward to attack another fast but tough stage.
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