All eyes were on Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano), André Greipel (Lotto Belisol), and Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) when today's second stage of Tirreno-Adriatico came down to the expected high-speed sprint in Cascina. However, it was Matteo Pelucchi (IAM) who came off Greipel's wheel with an impressive burst of speed to take the stage win ahead of Arnaud Demare and the German champion while a disappointed Cavendish got the consolation prize of defending his overall lead.

 

The IAM team proved to Tirreno-Adriatico organizers RCS that they made a good decision by inviting them to their event when they came away with a surprise win against the cream of the sprinters in today's second stage of the race. Italian sprinter Matteo Pelucchi proved his fast speed when he beat the sprinting giants Marcel Kittel, Andre Greipel, and Mark Cavendish to take the team's first win on the season.

 

All was set for the first big showdown between the three best sprinters when the peloton roared towards the finish in Cascina. However, disaster struck for Kittel when he went down in a crash just 3km from the line, taking the German out of contention before the sprint had even started.

 

The sprint became a confusing one as neither Lotto Belisol nor Omega Pharma-Quick Step were well-positioned. Instead, it was Tinkoff-Saxo who led the peloton in the closing stages as they tried to keep Alberto Contador safe near the front.

 

While the major trains were all some way behind, Lampre-Merida and FDJ were the best organized teams and they battled hard for control in the final kilometres of the stage. Inside the final kilometre, the French team won the battle and Mickael Delage delivered Arnaud Demare perfectly on the front.

 

Behind, Lotto Beliol had moved Greipel into position just in time for the sprint to start while Cavendish was fighting hard a bit further back. Demare went head-to-head with Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) and Peter Sagan (Cannondale) while Greipel started his sprint from a little further behind.

 

While Modolo and Sagan started to fade, Greipel started to move up but he had not taken Pelucchi into account. The Italian was well-placed on the German's wheel and opened his sprint with 100m to go.

 

From there, the outcome was never in doubt as the Italian shot ahead and easily passed both Demare and Greipel to take a comfortable win. Demare held onto 2nd while Greipel was surely disappointed to take 3rd.

 

Cavendish rolled across the line a little further back and was never in contention in the sprint. As the first Omega Pharma-Quick Step rider across the line, however, he defended his overall lead.

 

He faces a sterner test in tomorrow's second stage. It is mostly a flat affair but end with three laps on an 11km finishing circuit in Arezzo. The finish is very technical and the final kilometre is uphill with an average gradient of 5%, meaning that it should be stage for the puncheurs.

 

A flat stage

After the opening team time trial, Tirreno-Adriatico continued with a 166km stage from San Vincenzo to Cascina. The early part was undulating as it featured three categorized climbs but the final part was completely flat and the stage ended with two laps of an 20.6km flat circuit in Cascina.

 

With a flat stage and several strong sprinters in attendance, the stage was almost guaranteed to end in a bunch sprint and so there was no fight at all to get into the early breakaway. From the gun. David de la Cruz (NetApp-Endura), Davide Malacarne (Europcar), Marco Canola (Bardiani), Alex Dowsett (Movistar), and Daniel Teklehaimanot (MTN-Qhubeka) took off and they were immediately allowed to open up a gap.

 

The gap opens up

After 8km, they were already 2.15 ahead and after 25km of racing, they were 5 minutes ahead. That was when the sprint team started to control the gap and kept it stable at around that mark for most of the day.

 

Up ahead, the escapees battled for points on the day's first climb where Carnola beat de la Cruz and Teklehaimanot. After one hour of racing, the gap was 4.30 and the Omega Pharma-Quick Steo didn't want to let things get out of control as they continued to lead the peloton.

 

Canola takes KOM points

Canola was also first at the top of the day's second climb as he beat Teklehaimanot, Dowsett, de la Cruz and Malacarne into the minor positions. Behind, OPQS have got assistance from Lotto Belisol and Giant-Shimano and for a long time Wout Poels, Frederik Willems, and Tom Stamsnijder swapped turns on the front.

 

Canola was also first at the third and final climb of the day when he beat Teklehaimanot, de la Cruz and Malacarne. Hence, the Italian was rewarded for his efforts by taking the first mountains jersey.

 

Dowsett scores points

In the first intermediate sprint, Dowsett made a small attack to pick up the valuable bonus seconds. He decided to wait for his companions and they continued to work well together.

 

The gap was kept stable between the four- and five-minute marks by the three chasers for most of the day but with 40km to go, the peloton started to accelerate. 42km from the finish, the gap was down to 3.30 and it reached 3.00.

 

Dowsett takes off

Stamsnijder led the peloton across the finish line for the first time while Canola was riding hard as he tried to keep the break alive.

 

32km from the finish, the riders passed the site of the final intermediate sprint and again Dowsett attacked to take the seconds. This time, however, he decided to continue on his own and he quickly opened a 16-second gap over his former companions.

 

Lotto Belisol up the pace

With 24km to go, Lotto Belisol started to chase a bit harder and the caught de la Cruz who had fallen off the pace in the break. Dowsett was still 2.30 ahead while the chasers still hadn't given up.

 

The trio behind Dowsett continued to lose time and with 20km to go, they were 35 seconds behind Dowsett. Meanwhile, OPQS had now taken complete control in the peloton, with Matteo Trentin bringing the gap down to less than two minutes.

 

IAM hit the front

With 16km to go, the Belgian team had the advantage down to 1.10 while the three chasers sat up to get swallowed up by the bunch. With 14km to go, IAM showed their faith in Pelucchi as they hit the front.

 

Kittel had bad luck when his teammate Roy Curvers suffered a puncture while a big crash brought down several Lotto riders, including GC captains Jurgen Van Den Broeck and Bart De Clercq who both seemed to be badly hurt.

 

Counterattacks are launched

With 11km to go, the gap was down to 23 seconds and as not team took control of the chase, a Katusha rider attacked. He was joined by one from BMC and a third rider but as Giant-Shimano got back to work, they closed the move down.

 

With 8km to go, Tinkoff-Saxo hit the front to keep Contador safe and they quickly swallowed up Dowsett. While all the sprint teams were jostling for position, Contador was marshaled by Daniele Bennati and Michael Mørkøv who swapped turns on the front.

 

FDJ launch their train

The Danish team controlled the pace until the 3km to go mark where Roman Kreuziger took the final turn on the front. From there, FDJ launched their train with Murilo Fischer kicking off the action.

 

At that point, Kittel went down in a solo crash, throwing his bike to the ground in frustration. Up ahead FDJ remained in control until they were passed by the Lampre duo of Filippo Pozzato and Maximilano Richeze.

 

A confusing sprint

They had lost Modolo though and stopped their effort, allowing Lloyd Mondory to leading out Davide Appollonio. Cimolai moved to the front with Modolo on his wheel but it was Delage who did it all right when he delivered Demare on the front.

 

The Frenchman was in the perfect position but in the end Pelucchi came fast from behind to take what is by far the biggest win of his career.