After the win in yesterday’s team time trial, Gazprom-Rusvelo again proved that they have cards to play in the Giro d’Italia as Sergey Firsanov claimed an impressive solo win in the hilly second stage of the Settimana Coppi e Bartali. Having attacked on the penultimate passage of Monte Tiffi, he held off a small chase group with a brave solo move which allowed him to take both the win and the overall lead. Mauro Finetto (Uniero) beat Gianni Moscon (Sky) in the uphill sprint for second.

When the wild cards for the Giro d’Italia were announced, many were surprised to see that Gazprom-Rusvelo had received the nod. Many doubted whether the Russians would be competitive but the management were adamant that they would be in the mix in all terrains.

After two days of racing at the traditional preparation race Settimana Coppi e Bartali, the riders have proved them right. Yesterday they won the flat team time trial and today they excelled in the mountains when team leader Sergey Firsanov rode to a solo win in the first hilly stage of the race, taking over the lead from his teammate Arthur Ershov.

After yesterday’s team time trial, it was time for the first climbing in the Settimana Coppi e Bartali when the riders tackled the 154.7km from Riccione to Sogliano al Rubicone. After a flat start, they tackled two climbs in quick succession at the midpoint and then reached the 22.1km finishing circuit that included the Monte Tiffi climb. After a first passage of the climb, the riders did two laps of the circuit. After the ascent, there were 12.1km to the finish and they were mostly descending until they hit the final 280m cobbled ramp to the line.

It was a nice day for a bike race when the riders gathered for the start. The Bardiani pair of Mirco Maestri and Paolo Simion were the only non-starters as they headed out for their neutral ride.

There were lots of attacks right from the gun but no one was able to get clear as they sped around the flat circuit at the start. Vitaliy Buts (Kolss) and Marco Tizza (D’Amico) were the first to get a small advantage but they were quickly brought back.

The elastic finally snapped after more than an hour of racing when Kirill Podznyakov (Synergy Baku Cycling Project), Kenny De Ketele (Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise), Daniel Pearson (Team Wiggins) and Daniel Turek (Academy Cycling Team) got clear. While Till Drobitsch, Mathias Krigbaum and Federico Borella left the race, they quickly pushed their advantage out to 2.43 at the 50km mark.

Pozdnyakov won the first KOM sprint and he was also the fastest in the second battle for mountain points. Meanwhile, the peloton kept the gap stable and it was still 2.42 at the 80km mark.

In the peloton, it was Gazprom-Rusvelo doing the work and they accelerated hard as they approached the circuit. With 70km to go, the gap was down to 2 minutes and it had dropped to a minute as they hit Monte Tiffi for the first time.

Pozdnyakov turned out to be the strongest as he left his companions behind, cresting the summit with a 22-second advantage over Pearson and 30 seconds over Turek. They were quickly brought back as Nippo-Vini Fantini did a big job in the peloton to make a selection, reducing the gap to 40 seconds at the top.

Sky took over the pace-setting and erased the final 30 seconds of the advantage at the 99km mark. Hence, it was a compact peloton that hit the bottom of the Mone Tiffi for the second time.

Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani) attacked hard while Jesse Anthony (Rally) who had started the race in third place, was one of many riders to get dropped. A little later Firsanov made his move as he joined Pirazzi and the pair crested the summit with a 15-second advantage over the peloton which was still led by Phil Deignan (Sky).

The two leaders crossed the line to start the final lap of the circuit and entered the final 20km with a 35-second advantage. It even went out to 44 seconds as they hit the climb for the final time.

The gap started to come down as they went up the ascent and this opened the door for Egan Bernal (Androni) to attack. He quickly made it across to the leaders and then set a fast pace that was too hard for Pirazzi who fell off.

Bernal was looking strong and the pair crested the summit with a 20-second advantage over Mauro Finetto (Uniero), Gianni Moscon (Sky) and Giulio Ciccone (Bardiani). However, disaster struck for the Colombian as he crashed on the descent and left Firsanov as the lone leader.

Firsanov worked hard to maintain a 25-second advantage with 5km to go where Sebastian Henao (Sky), Andrea Fedi (Southeast) – who briefly made a solo move – Pirazzi, Antonio Santoro (Meridiana) and Pierpaolo Ficara (Amore e Vita) had caught the chase trio. He dug deep and still had 22 seconds at the flamme rouge where a bigger group was just 35 seconds behind.

Firsanov powered up the cobbled climb to the finish and held off his chasers to claim the win. Finetto split the chase group on the ascent and crossed the line 15 seconds later while Moscon was 2 seconds further adrift in third.

With the win, Firsanov moves into the overall lead with a 7-second advantage over Finetto while Moscon is 19 seconds behind in third. He should have no problem defending the lead in tomorrow’s third stage which is expected to be one for the sprinters. After a descending start, the riders will do 10 laps of a flat 12.2km circuit in Crevalcore where the fastest riders are expected to battle it out.