So after Loddo's, perhaps surprising, win in Stage 1, he holds the jersey for todays lumpy sprint stage. To reflect the end-of-stage hills, the bookies have put Ventoso, Napolitano and Ponzi as stage favourites, but nothing is ever a certainty in racing!
And as soon as we get underway, our break of the day is formed. Zirbel, Sobal, Danculovic and Ulanowski are the mad men today.
At our first KoM prime, there was no contest and Danculovic takes it, over Zirbel and Sobal. Ulanowski gets dropped, which, unsurprisingly, seems to be Cilit Bang's favoured team tactic for the tour so far.
As the race goes on, the break is close to being brought back before the 2nd KOM prime. In response, the break of 3 all attack each other.
Zirbel leads Danculovic:
The 2nd KoM therefore goes to Zirbel, over Danculovic and Sobal.
There are plenty of attacks for the 4th spot from the peloton, with Petrov taking it, extending his lead a little to 11 points.
Over the top, and pre KoM 3 prime, the break is caught. This leaves, potentially, a fair few points up for grabs, and as a result we see a lot of attacks for the prime.
Petrov, El-Fares, Dan Martin, Pavarin and Mandri all feature.
But just before the line, we have Kolobnev attacking too, and he storms past the rest of the riders, using his strength on the steepest parts of the climb.
He clinches the prime, pockets a few euros for himself, but what's this? Whilst everyone else has sat up again, he's pushing on, going for a long break.
2nd over the KoM was D.Martin, 3rd, Pavarin.
And what a gap he's pulled out already! With only 2.5km left to ride, he's got himself a handy 30 second lead, surely he's sewn this up!
Further back, it's bad news for Vespa, as Ginanni has a tantrum, and throws in the towel with 5km left to ride. No one quite knows why he threw the tantrum, but it's rumoured that he just didn't like the type of tarmac that covered the finishing line, and didn't want to go near it for fear of damaging his ego. We'll all be left guessing I suppose. (No crash was reported, so I actually don't know why he stopped.)
Moving back to the front of the race, and Kolobnev is still leading with 2km to go, whilst Ponzi, Ventoso, and Gasparotto are all near the front of the field.
But they just can't stop this man, Kolobnev, relishing his new found team, and rewarding them with a great victory.
But not only do Tinkoff get their first major win today (it IS in Italy after all!), but they get a 1-2 as Trusov, having survived the final climb, and not having to do any work, sprints to 2nd place ahead of Ventoso and Impey.
Ponzi really paid there for getting on the wrong wheel.
And look! It's Loddo, sprinting in just with the fie..l...d..... no, not quite Alberto, you've lost the lead by quite a country mile.
So the victory, and lead, goes to Kolobnev!
Stage
1
Aleksandr Kolobnev
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
4h01'57
2
Nikolai Trusov
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
+ 21
3
Francisco Ventoso
Santander
s.t.
4
Daryl Impey
Yamaha - Greenpeace
s.t.
5
Simone Ponzi
Wiggle - San Pellegrino
s.t.
6
Lorenzo Bernucci
Pirelli-Internazionale
s.t.
7
Dale Appleby
100% Me
s.t.
8
René Mandri
Intesa
s.t.
9
Nicolas Roche
100% Me
s.t.
10
Cristiano Salerno
Intesa
s.t.
11
Rinaldo Nocentini
Wiggle - San Pellegrino
s.t.
12
Ben Jacques-Maynes
Mercedes-Benz
s.t.
13
Daniel Martin
100% Me
s.t.
14
Matthew Lloyd
Sport Lisboa e Benfica
s.t.
15
Valerio Agnoli
Intesa
s.t.
16
Francesco Gavazzi
UniCredit
s.t.
17
Francisco Colorado
Sport Lisboa e Benfica
s.t.
18
Marcello Pavarin
Wiggle - San Pellegrino
s.t.
19
Ivan Seledkov
Yamaha - Greenpeace
s.t.
20
Chris Froome
100% Me
s.t.
21
Paolo Scarponi
Wiggle - San Pellegrino
s.t.
22
Iñigo Landaluze
Yamaha - Greenpeace
s.t.
23
Luis Pasamontes
Mercedes-Benz
s.t.
24
Alessandro Proni
Vespa-Caffrey's
s.t.
25
Giampaolo Cheula
Pirelli-Internazionale
s.t.
26
Sébastien Duret
Pendleton's Twicer
s.t.
27
Jaume Rovira
Pendleton's Twicer
s.t.
28
Pieter Ghyllebert
Mercedes-Benz
s.t.
29
Mikayil Krasnoperov
Sport Lisboa e Benfica
s.t.
30
Massimo Iannetti
Pirelli-Internazionale
s.t.
31
Enrico Gasparotto
UniCredit
s.t.
32
Jesus Del Nero
Santander
s.t.
33
Cédric Hervé
Bacardi - Colt
s.t.
34
Daniel Moreno
Sport Lisboa e Benfica
s.t.
35
Andrei Kunitski
Intesa
s.t.
36
Ivan Rovny
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
s.t.
37
Boy Van Poppel
UniCredit
s.t.
38
Mikaël Chérel
Pendleton's Twicer
s.t.
39
Mathieu Perget
Bacardi - Colt
s.t.
40
Leonardo Bertagnolli
Wiggle - San Pellegrino
s.t.
41
Danail Petrov
Sport Lisboa e Benfica
s.t.
42
Scott Nydam
Mercedes-Benz
s.t.
43
Dainius Kairelis
Yamaha - Greenpeace
s.t.
44
David Garbelli
Vespa-Caffrey's
s.t.
45
Tom Diggle
Wiggle - San Pellegrino
s.t.
46
Davide Bragazzi
UniCredit
s.t.
47
Taylor Tolleson
Mercedes-Benz
s.t.
48
Eduard Vorganov
Pendleton's Twicer
s.t.
49
Julien El Fares
Bacardi - Colt
s.t.
50
Wes Sulzberger
100% Me
s.t.
51
Borut Bozic
Pendleton's Twicer
s.t.
52
Danilo Napolitano
UniCredit
s.t.
53
Rubén Darío Laverde Velez
Sport Lisboa e Benfica
s.t.
54
Evgeni Sokolov
Bacardi - Colt
s.t.
55
Tim Kennaugh
Pendleton's Twicer
s.t.
56
Boris Shpilevski
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
s.t.
57
Andrew Bajadali
Yamaha - Greenpeace
s.t.
58
Aleksandr Arekejev
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
s.t.
59
Giovanny Báez
Yamaha - Greenpeace
s.t.
60
Alberigo Passalacqua
Vespa-Caffrey's
s.t.
61
Gracjan Lejman
Yamaha - Greenpeace
s.t.
62
Francesco Reda
Bacardi - Colt
+ 1'54
63
Aitor Galdos
Santander
+ 2'52
64
Alberto Loddo
Pirelli-Internazionale
s.t.
65
Chiaffredo Grippo
Wiggle - San Pellegrino
s.t.
66
Nico Sijmens
Pendleton's Twicer
s.t.
67
Sergei Klimov
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
s.t.
68
Alfredo Balloni
Vespa-Caffrey's
s.t.
69
Dionisio Galparsoro
Santander
s.t.
70
Richard Cleaver
100% Me
s.t.
71
Simon Gaywood
100% Me
+ 3'20
72
Artur Gajek
Bacardi - Colt
s.t.
73
Yannick Stoltz
Cillit Bang - IT-Factory powered by The Moon X
s.t.
74
Oscar Gatto
Vespa-Caffrey's
s.t.
75
Nick Kinney
Pirelli-Internazionale
s.t.
76
Ethan Weiss
Mercedes-Benz
s.t.
77
Luca Paolini
Pirelli-Internazionale
s.t.
78
Bruno Neves
Sport Lisboa e Benfica
s.t.
79
Erik Hoffmann
Cillit Bang - IT-Factory powered by The Moon X
s.t.
80
Juan Abenhamar Gallego Martin
Santander
s.t.
81
Eros Capecchi
Intesa
s.t.
82
Laurent Lefèvre
Cillit Bang - IT-Factory powered by The Moon X
s.t.
83
Arkaitz Durán
Santander
s.t.
84
Tom Zirbel
Mercedes-Benz
s.t.
85
Thurakit Boonratanathanakorn
THE CONTROLTEAM
s.t.
86
Kim Michely
THE CONTROLTEAM
s.t.
87
Óscar Guerao
Santander
+ 4'57
88
Fabio Borghesi
UniCredit
s.t.
89
Khayabkhyrvaa Uugunbayar
Cillit Bang - IT-Factory powered by The Moon X
s.t.
90
Anuar Manan
Cillit Bang - IT-Factory powered by The Moon X
s.t.
91
Ruben Bongiorno
Intesa
s.t.
92
Diego Caccia
Pirelli-Internazionale
+ 5'33
93
Egon Luzi
Vespa-Caffrey's
s.t.
94
Yauhen Sobal
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
s.t.
95
Tomislav Danculovic
Bacardi - Colt
s.t.
96
Sebastian Batchelor
THE CONTROLTEAM
s.t.
97
Daniel Kreutzfeldt
UniCredit
+ 7'40
98
Matthew Brammeier
Cillit Bang - IT-Factory powered by The Moon X
+ 8'18
99
Andrei Nechita
Intesa
s.t.
100
Adrien Niyonshuti
THE CONTROLTEAM
+ 9'48
101
Maciej Ulanowski
Cillit Bang - IT-Factory powered by The Moon X
+ 15'48
GC: the game did not provide bonus seconds, so they were added on manually. if you feel something is not right, tough luck and blame PCM.