Kennaugh takes over race lead in Coppi e Bartali

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Team Sky's Peter Kennaugh inherited the race leader's jersey at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali from teammate Ben Swift after going on the attack on stage two.

Kennaugh escaped with Bardiani-CSF's Francesco Bongiorno and then powered away from the Italian at the finish to take the stage victory and overall lead. Matteo Rabottini (Neri Sottoli) was the nearest chaser, 48 seconds down on Kennaugh, while Team Sky's Dario Cataldo was fifth at 50 seconds.

Team Sky, Cannondale and Bardiani-CSF controlled the action for much of the stage, first chasing a breakaway of 10 riders and then going on the attack. On the second of the five, with the climb splitting the peloton, Swift began to slip back Sebastian Henao, Kennaugh and Cataldo were up front going over the top and were part of an elite front group.

Kennaugh attacked alone and was followed by Bongiorno. The Italian then made his own solo counter-attack but Kennaugh stayed cool, got back to him on the descent and won in style. It was the third straight victory for Team Sky, after sprinter Ben Swift won the opening stage, and the quartet of Kennaugh, Swift, Cataldo and Vasili Kiryienka won the team time trial.

It was Kennaugh's first road race victory as a professional after dedicating much of 2012 to the track and winning gold in the team pursuit at the London Olympics. Last year he played support key role, helping Chris Froome win the Tour de France. However he is familiar with racing and winning in Italy after spending his formative years in Tuscany as part of the Under 23 Great Britain Academy.

Sports Director Dan Frost revealed that Team Sky opted to back Kennaugh on the hilly circuit used in the stage, rather try to defend Swift race lead.

“We had agreed that we would work for Pete to attack on the last climb,” he explained on the Team Sky website.

“Ben rode well until he had to leave the group. He really fought for the jersey which was good to see. He could get another chance tomorrow if the race ends in a sprint.”

“Sebastian did a really good job of attacking the penultimate time over and making a selection. Cataldo was also there on the last part. Before that we had the whole team leading the race and staying on top of everything. Pete went as planned and Bongiorno went with him. He actually attacked Pete over the top but he was able to catch him on the descent. Pete played it smart and in our opinion he was also the strongest on the run-in."

“It’s great to see him get the win. It’s also his first win as a pro not in a team time trial. So that’s a really nice moment. What’s more we were able to get Cataldo home in fourth place which hopefully should give us two guys right up there for there for the final time trial."

The Coppi e Bartali race continues on Saturday with a circuit stage in Crevalcore, near Bologna and ends on Sunday with a hilly 10km individual time trial.

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