A day for the break with Pink up for grabs? Giro d'Italia stage 2 preview

After the chaos of yesterday, the Giro moves into stage 2 on an undulating terrain, which, if this stage were in week 2 or 3, would be a nailed-on stage for the breakaway, but with the pink jersey at stake, anything could happen.


As shown by the route, the stage has three categorised climbs, the first two of which are not likely to feature any real drama, but the last 20km is where the stage comes into its own, with the Red Bull Kilometre leading into a 3km climb at 6%, which should see attacks too fast for the pure sprinters like Jonathan Milan to follow but could guys like Corbin Strong and Tobias Lund Andresen get over it in a reduced bunch but even if they survive the final categorised climb the final 3km is anything but simple with two cobbled sectors and ramps of up to 9% between them likely making too hard for the names above so the next group of riders likely to contest this are the puncheurs and classic specialists.

Guys that could well win include Antonio Morgado (UAE team Emirates), who took the two bonus seconds on offer yesterday, hinting at an assault on pink today or his two teammates Jan Christen and Jhonatan Narvaez, who have both won stages like this before, and for Narvaez, he wore pink for a day in 2024 because of a parcours exactly like this one. Will any of the GC guys go for pink this early? Jonas Vingegaard, Giulio Pellizzari, Thymen Arensman. Egan Bernal and Adam Yates all have the potential to go for this stage, but I think they may well all keep their powder dry for later in the race, so it comes down to the second-tier GC guys like Michael Storer, Ben O'Connor, Santiago Buitrago, etc., vs the Puncheurs and one-day specialists in the UAE trio, Michael Valgren, Giulio Ciccone and Matteo Sobrero or can any of the second tier sprinters who can climb like Ben Turner, Corbin Strong and Andrea Vendrame survive the final slopes and sprint to victory in a reduced bunch sprint? It promises to be an action-packed day in which half the peloton will fancy getting a top 5 on the day.

I'm predicting that Jhonatan Narvaez will win the stage and take pink for the second time in his career, but it could really be anyone's given where and when the climbs take place, especially since there is a chance of rain in the finale today

Daniel Mott

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