"The most important thing was not to fall."

Those were the words of Astana's Paolo Tiralongo after stage two of the Giro d'Italia. Tiralongo has always remained in the top positions of the group in the very nervous final circuit of Genoa and so helped his teammate Fabio Aru to avoid possible falls.

Tiralongo finished tenth in the sprint won by Elia Viviani of Italy. Tiralongo is now tenth in the overall classification led by the pink jersey Michael Matthews of Australia.

"The stage was nervous and treacherous because of the many falls that characterized it," he added. "Our task was mainly to keep Fabio in the front in the final two laps of the circuit, given the pitfalls on the course. In the last kilometre I was in a good position so I tried to use my skills as a semi sprinter, doing the sprint and getting a tenth place and an unexpected result. Tomorrow will be a good test of my real form despite the fact that the final challenges is located far from the finish."