Giro d Italia Stage 2 2021-05-09

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Event
Giro d Italia Stage 2

Date
Sun 9th May 2021 (UTC)
Sun 9th May 2021 (Local)

Timestamp
2021-05-09T10:00:00

Time

10:00:00 UTC (12:00:00 Local)

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League
UCI World Tour

Season
2021

Round
20

Status

Location

Video Highlights

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Description

The first road stage of the Giro featured a flat stage from Stupinigi to Novara. Before the stage started, a moment of silence was held to remember Wouter Weylandt, who died on the third stage of the 2011 Giro. The day's stage was held on the 10th anniversary of his death.

A three-man breakaway broke clear as soon as the flag dropped. The break, composed of Vincenzo Albanese (Eolo–Kometa), Umberto Marengo (Bardiani–CSF–Faizanè), and Filippo Tagliani (Androni Giocattoli–Sidermec) were allowed to build up a gap of 4' 20" before the peloton began to bring them back. On the only categorized climb of the day up to Montechiaro d'Asti, it was Albanese who took the points to become the first wearer of the blue mountains jersey before his time on the front ended due to a mechanical. With 40 kilometres (25 mi) to go, Tagliani and Marengo dueled for the first intermediate sprint in Tricerro, which the former won to take maximum points, before Fernando Gaviria took third a few minutes later from the peloton. The remaining duo out front was swept up by the peloton before the second intermediate sprint in Vercelli with 24.5 kilometres (15.2 mi) to go, which featured bonus seconds for the general classification. Race leader Filippo Ganna took the maximum of three bonus seconds to extend his lead, while Remco Evenepoel took two bonus seconds to move ahead of his teammate João Almeida into 4th place in GC.

In the final kilometers, the sprinters and their respective lead-out trains crowded the front of the peloton in preparation for the sprint while the GC teams fought for position at the front to keep their leaders safe. In the final kilometer, there was no clear lead-out train and it was Tim Merlier of Giro debutant team Alpecin–Fenix who started his sprint with 200 meters to go. He would not be overtaken as he took the stage and the points jersey in the process. Giacomo Nizzolo finished second with Elia Viviani taking third. Dylan Groenewegen, who was riding his first race following a nine-month suspension, finished fourth. Ganna finished safely in the peloton to keep the maglia rosa.