2020 Giro d'Italia Stage 2 Results & Recap
Stage 2 of the 2020 Giro d'Italia is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Ulissi wins stage 2
Diego Ulissi won stage 2 of the Giro d'Italia in fine fashion with an uphill sprint into the beautiful city of Agrigento today after 149km of racing. The UAE Team Emirates powerhouse was the strongest up the final 3.7 climb, staking claim to top honors ahead of a hungry Peter Sagan and Mikkel Frølich Honoré (Deceuninck-Quickstep).
UAE Team Emirates took out and out control of the final climb, sending a highly capable Valerio Conti to lead the charge up the steeper pitches in hopes Ulissi could springboard off his efforts.
I am really happy to get my seventh career victory at the Giro. It is a great personal satisfaction, but also for the team: we got off to a great start in this Corsa Rosa, putting into practice what we planned in the team meeting," Ulissi said in his team release. "Bjerg, Gaviria, Richeze all did great work on the flats. Then, on the final climb, I asked Conti to up the pace, to tire out the sprinters: Valerio was perfect and laid the foundations to allow me to play my cards in what was a difficult sprint, especially when Sagan came back.”
The win puts Ulissi into the lead of the points classification and 10th overall.
Ulissi's compatriot, world TT champion Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers), held on during the rip-roaring finish to retain his maglia rosa, after a storming time trial in Palermo on the opening day. But the TT specialist has no hopes in keeping the jersey past today, as the first mountain top finish up Mount. Etna looms on stage 3.
“The climb was really hard but not too steep ," Ganna said in his team's release. "The peloton pulled really hard at the finish and it was a big problem to follow. But I was able to conserve the jersey and tomorrow I will work for the team. Tomorrow on Etna is a really hard day and it can decide the GC for the next few days. I’m here to support G (Geraint Thomas) and I’m happy to support him."
The stage unfolded in a predictable way, with Thomas De Gendt, Ben Gastauer (AG2R La Mondiale), Mattia Bais (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec), Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani-CSF-Faizane) and Etienne Van Empel (Vini ZabĂą-KTM) creating the break of the day early on in proceedings. As enthusiastic as they were, however, the Ineos team kept their advantage at a tolerable three minutes, with its max slipping out to five minutes at times. They remained in the lead until 10km to go, when the sprinters' teams decided enough was enough. Bora-hansgrohe fought tooth and nail with Groupama-FDJ, but UAE had the upper hand when it came to the climb.
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