Having twice beaten Mark Cavendish in the Tour of Turkey, Elia Viviani arrived at the Giro d'Italia with a lot of confidence in his chances of finally taking his first grand tour stage win. Despite only taking 4th behind a superior Marcel Kittel in yesterday's first road stage, the Italian was satisfied with his sprint.

The Giro stages on the Emerald Isle promised to be wet and windy. The peloton hoped they wouldn’t be wild. Early days in a Grand Tour are often nervous, with riders battling for every inch of roadway. And with the day, Stage Two, a 219km (136.1mi) ride starting and finishing in Belfast, opening wet, windy and cool, there was worry in the peloton.

Cannondale Pro Cycling had two objectives for the day. One, keep captain Ivan Basso protected. They didn’t want to lose any time, have him involved in any crashes, and make sure he didn’t waste any energy. The second objective was setting up Elia Viviani for the sprint. As Viviani recently won two stages at the Tour of Turkey, beating some of the fastest men of the international peloton, he was ready to go for the stage win. Luckily, the two objectives dovetailed nicely, as keeping Basso in position also put the team in a place where they could help set up Viviani.

When Belkin’s Maarten Tjallingii attacked shortly after the start, three riders followed, but the Green Machine held back. They preferred to save their energy for the finale.

The break quickly got a five-minute lead. But they never got much more. Orica-Greenedge, the team of race leader Svein Tuft, kept them in check. Orica also has a top sprinter in Michael Matthews, and if he could sprint well at the end of the day, he could snag a time bonus and move into pink. Cannondale remained near the front, staying out of the wind and out of trouble.

All the same, the break kept banging heads, staying out there in the wet and wind, mile after mile. Tjallingii was the man of the day, gobbling up the King of the Mountain sprint, and even attacking solo with 8km (5mi) remaining.

By this time, Cannondale had embraced the front, throwing four riders into the lead to snuff out the day’s breakaway. They drove the field and brought back Tjallingii with 3.4km (2.1mi) remaining.

Having exhausted many of their riders in the chase, Cannondale turned over the lead to Giant-Shimano, the team of sprinter Marcel Kittel. Position was still essential, as the roads were still wet and, as always, narrow.

Into the final kilometer, Viviani was in the scrum, and Orica took over again for Matthews. Around the final corner, and Viviani was making up ground fast. But not fast enough on Marcel Kittel, who launched his sprint with 150 meters remaining and crossed the line with a clear victory. Viviani took fourth behind FDJ’s Nacer Bouhanni and Trek’s Giacomo Nizzolo.

Viviani liked what he felt. 

“I’m pretty satisfied with today’s sprint. We have to consider we raced 220 km in the rain with cool temperatures. It was a tough day and my muscles felt the efforts a little when I had to open the gas. I’m happy for the work of the team, who managed the race finale well to avoid any risks, as well as for the position I had in the bunch on the last bend.

"Today, Kittel and Bouhanni did better than me. There will be other chances to challenge, maybe with better condition. Today, it was important to be in the game – this fourth place means I was there.”

Today is the Giro’s last day on the Emerald Isle. The 187km (116.2mi) stage starts in Armagh and finishes in Dublin. The stage starts with rolling hills, but flattens out by half distance. Expect to see Cannondale repeat today’s playbook on the road to Dublin, but with Viviani hopefully bagging the sprint at the end.