The saying ‘Good things come to those who wait’ is a universal one, and few in the peloton could have felt it more than Marcel Kittel, who took his first win for Katusha-Alpecin and his first of the year – when he was fastest to the line to take the second stage of Tirreno-Adriatico, showing a fine turn of pace to get the better of world champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) and home favourite Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo).
The finale was marred by a big crash with seven kilometres to go that thankfully did not end anyone’s race prematurely at this early stage – that said, it did bring Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) down, kicking him back and unfortunately reversing the great effort that he’d made during the team time trial.
In keeping with the tradition of sprint finishes through the season, it was a chaotic and messy finale, not helped by the fact that only 30 riders managed to avoid the melee that took place just seven kilometres from home, but for the first time this season Katusha managed to have a delegation to surround the German powerhouse, and it showed as he was launched into the lead with confidence. despite being left in front for a long time, he never truly looked like being caught by either Sagan or Nizzolo and was a clear winner over the line.
Team Sky managed to keep themselves out of trouble at the front of proceedings, and there was quite a notable and impressive showing for Michal Kwiatkowski, who managed to finish fourth. They have a clutch of riders ready to launch an assault on the general classification tomorrow, with Geraint Thomas Salvatore Puccio, Chris Froome and Jonathan Castroviejo all nine seconds behind BMC’s Patrick Bevin, who took the leader’s jersey courtesy of his fifth-place position in the sprint. He is level on time with Caruso, Greg Van Avermaet and Rohan Dennis all on the same time, leaving BMC in a prime position to keep the jersey for the very hard stage that takes place tomorrow, whilst Daryl Impey managed to finish with the main group and is now the lone leading rider from Mitchelton-Scott in the top 10.
The day started in orderly fashion, with a three-man breakaway of Alexandr Foliforov (Gazprom-Rusvelo), Guy Sagiv (Israel Cycling Academy), Nicola Bagioli (Nippo-Vini Fantini) and Jacopo Mosca (Wilier-Selle Italia) forging clear on the on the climb of Montemagno, the toughest terrain of the day. That group was not seen as a threat by the main peloton, so After 15 kilometres of racing, they quickly built a lead of 4:25 over a peloton that was being led by BMC to honour the jersey. They would build a maximum buffer of 7:25 over the main group, but Mitchelton-Scott thought that was enough and when Luke Drubbing was sent to the front to assist with the chase, that was the end of any realistic ambitions and the gap was soon down below five minutes as the field headed for the circuit of Follonica, where Kittel would take his first glory of the season.
