Sunday 08 May 2011 at 19h58

The second stage of the Giro d'Italia 2011 was the longest and it was mainly marked by a ... long escape by ... Sebastian Lang (Omega Pharma-Lotto). It did however end as expected, with a sprint, a bit chaotic and won by Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) under protest from Mark Cavendish (Team HTC-Highroad) who saw his chances to win this stage fly away due to a zig-zagging Petacchi.

The summary of the second stage of the Giro d'Italia 2011 - Alba > Parma

This was the longest stage of this Tour of Italy 2011 with its 244 kilometers.

Not too long however for Sebastian Lang (Omega Pharma-Lotto) who decided to make it ... a long escape! Right from the 3rd kilometer the German rider got ahead of the peloton. He didn't however seem to worry the peloton because they left him quietly go away. His gap went up to 19'18" at 82 kilometers from the start.

By staying ahead alone up until 26 kilometers from the finish, Sebastian Lang also arrived alone and first on top of the only climb of the day, in Tabiano Castello, and he thus took the 3 first points for the King of the Mountains classification, ahead of Valerio Agnoli and Cristiano Salerno of the Liquigas-Cannondale team. Lang is thus tomorrow the first rider to wear the green KOM jersey.

Immediately after having taken back Lang, a group of 8 riders was formed following an attack by Leonardo Giordani of the Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli team and in this group was for example the team mate of the early breakaway rider, Jan Bakelandts, but also Michal Golas (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team), Ruggero Marzoli (Acqua & Sapone), Daniele Righi (Lampre-ISD), Jérôme Pineau (Quick Step), Ivan Rovny (Team Radioshack) and Eduard Vorganov (Katusha Team). In the last 10 kilometers the last one fell but he got back up on his bike and rejoined the breakaway. Not for long however because at 8 kilometers from the finish, the peloton bridged the gap with these 8 riders and everything was thus ready for a bunch sprint.

In the last kilometer, the peloton was lead by the Team Garmin-Cervélo train which got disorganised out of the last turn and the lead was thus taken over by the Lampre-ISD and HTC-Highroad teams. The entitled sprinters of these teams were thus to battle for victory and at about 100 meters from the finish, Alessandro Petacchi was leading but the British Mark Cavendish was getting ready to attack and show his force. The Italian rider however went from the middle of the road completely to the left, thus (unintentionally) blocking Cavendish in his effort ... To get back in the middle of the road afterwards. Cav' didn't know where to get through anymore and when we look at the photo-finish, it seems to be clear he was the strongest in this sprint because despite Petacchi blocking him, Cavendish ended at only one tube length behind the rider of the Lampre-ISD team.

Mark Cavendish can still celebrate, for the pink jersey which he took over after this stage and simply noticed that he still has 4 other occasions: There's five stages which can end in a sprint ...

The sprint in video

If you'd like to watch the images of the finish of this second stage of the Giro d'Italia 2011 once again or if you haven't seen them yet, you can watch the video below:

The Giro d'Italia 2011 classifications after the second stage

The top 5 of the second stage: Alba > Parma

Here's the top 5 of this second stage:

1/ Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) - 5h45'40"
2/ Mark Cavendish (Team HTC-Highroad)
3/ Manuel Belletti (Colnago-CSF Inox)
4/ Roberto Ferrari (Androni Giocattoli-C.I.P.I.)
5/ Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team)

General classification

The top 5 of the general classification sees the pink jersey changing shoulders but it remains in the HTC-Highroad team where Mark Cavendish takes over the leader's jersey:

1/ Mark Cavendish (HTC-Highroad) - 6h06'27"
2/ Kanstantsin Sivtsov (HTC-Highroad) - +0'12"
3/ Craig Lewis (HTC-Highroad)
4/ Marco Pinotti (HTC-Highroad)
5/ Lars Bak (HTC-Highroad)

Points classification

In the points classification, Petacchi is leading as well:

1/ Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) - 25 points
2/ Mark Cavendish (HTC-Highroad) - 20
3/ Manuel Belletti (Colnago-CSF Inox) - 16
4/ Roberto Ferrari (Androni Giocattoli-C.I.P.I.) - 14
5/ Wouter Weylandt (Team Leopard-Trek) - 13

King of the Mountains classification

By having crossed the top of the only climb of the day alone and ahead of the peloton, Sebastian Lang gets rewarded for his solitary escape with the first green jersey of the King of the Mountains classification:

1/ Sebastian Lang (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - 3 points
2/ Valerio Agnoli (Liquigas-Cannondale) - 2
3/ Cristiano Salerno (Liquigas-Cannondale) - 1

door Thomas Vergouwen
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