Pelucchi stuns with sprint win in Tirreno-Adriatico stage 2

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Matteo Pelucchi (IAM Cycling) caught the big names of sprinting out with a devastating kick for the line to win stage 2 of Tirreno-Adriatico, ahead of Arnaud Démare (FDJ.fr) and André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol).

It was Pelucchi who stole the show, with the 25-year-old picking the wheel of Greipel in the closing three hundred meters before unleashing an unmatchable dash for the line, to leave the German sprinter and Démare trailing. It was made even more impressive given the lack of support Pelucchi had, after he looked isolated and alone with less than a kilometre to go. However, he picked his line perfectly and combined it with perfect timing to take the biggest win of his career so far in Cascina.

Mark Cavendish found himself boxed in and finished in the main field. The Omega Pharma QuickStep rider retained his overall lead while his sprint rival Marcel Kittel (Giant Shimano) crashed out of contention inside the final few kilometres.

Resplendent in blue after leading his team home in Wednesday’s opening team time trial, Cavendish began the stage as one of the leading contenders. A recent win in Algarve had seen him take the opening win of season and with Greipel, Démare, Kittle and Sagan all present in the race, all expectations were on the leading sprinters in the WorldTour.

And after a frantic start to the stage everything appeared to be going to script. Daniel Teklehaymanot (MTN-Qhubeka), Marco Canola (Bardiani-CSF), Alex Dowsett (Movistar), David de la Cruz (NetApp-Endura) and Davide Malacarne (Europcar) broke clear in the opening two kilometres and duly obliged in providing QuickStep with something to chase.

The five leaders quickly established a gap that the sprinters’ teams found acceptable, peaking at 4’30 with roughly 60km of the stage remaining. The conditions were perfect for a sprint too, with little in the way of wind and a parcours with little to trouble the fast-men.

With the leaders extending their advantage by another twenty seconds Giant-Shimano joined Omega Pharma-QuickStep on the front of the peloton. Greipel’s Lotto team were soon willing to cooperate as well but their efforts weren’t yet as significant as Omega.

Inside the final 50 kilometres the pressure began to tell with the break losing over a minute, as Dowsett lead them over the finish line for the first time with a gap of 3’29 with 41km to go.

Dowsett claimed the three bonus seconds at the first intermediate sprint with 50km to go, and he jumped away from the break in a bid to add to his tally at the second sprint. The Movistar rider quickly established a 16 second lead on the remnants of the break, and maintained a 2’45 lead over the Lotto-led field with less than 26km to go.

Dowsett, a winner of a Giro d’Italia time trial stage last year, extended his advantage over his previous companions but the gap to the peloton continued to count down.

With one lap of the finishing circuit remaining Dowsett was 32 seconds clear of the break led by Teklehaymanot with the peloton at two minutes.

The pursuing peloton made contact with the break soon after, as Dowsett, clearly begin to fade, hugged the corners as he fought to hang onto every precious second.

As riders in the bunch began to jostle for position a crash saw a number of Greipel’s leadout men fall. The subsequent hesitation wasn’t enough to help Dowsett, who continued to lose chucks of time, and as he dipped under the 10km banner his fragile lead was down to 15 seconds.

It was Tinkoff Saxo who rather surprisingly brought the Englishman to within a handful of seconds, the Danish team aiming to keep Alberto Contador out of trouble and propel local rider Daniele Bennati towards a possible win.

Lotto meanwhile had regrouped but it was FDJ who snatched control at a vital moment as Giant, Omega and Lampre scrambled to get on terms.

Then disaster struck. Kittel crashed. And by the time the cameras panned back to him he had thrown his bike at the ground in disgust before he collapsed in a heap by the side of the road.

At the front of the peloton FDJ held the lead as Lampre Tinkoff and Cannondale swatted around them like flies. QuickStep were nowhere to be seen and for all their firepower and leadout qualities they failed to establish coherency when it mattered most. Petacchi found himself on the far right of the peloton as the leading sprinters opened up but Cavendish was too far back and duly drifted back as Pelucchi seized his moment.

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