Giro d'Italia (st. 2)
Dayer Quintana -hurt superficially, set to continue-, Movistar Team suffer crudity in Genova's difficult stage two circuit, Lobato unable to contest first Giro sprint. Viviani (SKY) victorious; Matthews (OGE) now in 'rosa'
It was a crazy, final 20km for the Movistar Team on stage two of the 2015 Giro d'Italia, which started off calmly -its 177km parcours from Albenga to Génova containing only one rated climb before a generous final circuit in the Ligurian port city- and became hectic with two almost consecutive crashes.
The first one saw Dayer Quintana sliding off into a crosswalk, crashing against his left side. The wounds didn't avoid him finishing the stage and shouldn't see him missing out on the start of stage three, but will definitely leave a mark on his debut in a Grand Tour road stage.
The second pile-up, 12km from the finish, saw the bunch breaking into several groups and leaving only one of the Blues, Ion Izagirre, at the front. Intxausti, Amador, Visconti and Igor Antón managed to get back into the main field -with Viviani (SKY) becoming the fastest in the 'volata'-, but it wasn't the case for Lobato, who had to get off his bike (without crashing) and lost one of his chances to search for a stage win in this year's 'Corsa Rosa'.
Monday will bring another chance for the riders directed by Jaimerena and Chente, with plenty of climbing in a short (136km from Rapallo to Sestri Levante), complicated stage three including the Cat-2 ascent of Barbagelata.