Having come close a few times in the Giro, Elia Viviani (Cannondale) finally took his first season win when he beat Gianni Meersman in the second stage of the Dauphiné in dominant fashion. The Italian sprinter survived some tough climbing on a classics-like course to finally be able to show off his fast finish while David Veilleux (Europcar) finished safely in the bunch to keep the leader's jersey.

Cannondale arrived at the Criterium du Dauphiné with modest ambition as most of its big names were making themselves ready for next week's Tour de Suisse but sprinter Elia Viviani decided to line up at the last minute because the team lacked a few riders for the race. That proved to be a wise decision as the Italian made good use of his Giro condition to win today's second stage of the Alpine race.

In a tough, hilly stage with numerous short climbs and tricky descents, the Italian dug deep to stay in the peloton as Omega Pharma-Quick Step set a murderous tempo on the many slopes to reel back the day's many attackers and put the fastest sprinters under pressure. The Belgian team was riding for Gianni Meersman who was out to make amends after his second place yesterday.

Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) had made a late attack over the top of the final climb and for most of the final descent, he stayed clear with a rather stable 11 second gap. Omega Pharma-Quick Step had used up most of their manpower and Meersman was now only supported by the team's GC rider Michal Kwiatkowski.

Sylvain Chavanel picked himself up and came back to the front to accelerate on the descent, and the Frenchman was going so fast that he actually gapped his teammates. However, he decided to wait but the they failed to make any inroads into the lead of the lone Estonian.

That all changed a few moments later when suddenly a large number of Cannondale riders hit the front. That of course indicated that Viviani had survived the many climbs and his green-clad team brought Taaramae back with 2,3km to go.

The Italian team kept the front position until the final 600m where Sky took the front to set up Geraint Thomas for the sprint. However, it was Meersman who opened a long dash to the line but Viviani was well-placed just in the Belgian's wheel.

As soon as the Italian put down the hammer, he showed why he finished second behind Mark Cavendish twice in the Giro as Meersman was simply no match to the speedy Italian. He took a very convincing win while Meersman had to settle for his second runner-up position in a row. Tony Gallopin (Radioshack) finished third to take over the white jersey from Tom-Jelte Slagter (Blanco) who was dropped on the final climb.

David Veilleux finished safely in the bunch and kept his 1.56 lead over Meersman and 1.57 over Gallopin who moved into third. He will try to defend his lead in tomorrow's stage which could be another one for the sprinters. Two category 3 climbs near the end could pose problems for some of the fast men but should do nothing to trouble the race-leading Canadian.

Starting at 12.45 you can follow the action on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

A fast start

The 191km stage was a hilly one with 6 categorized climbs and the final half was almost all up and down with little room to recover. The nature of the course suggested that a breakaway could be successful and so the start of the stage was a fast one with the riders covering no less than 50km in the first hour.

Gaetan Bille (Lotto), Markel Irizar (Radioshack), Alex Howes (Garmin) and Andriy Grivko (Astana) were some of the early attackers but they were all unsuccessful. However, the fast pace saw Jelle Vanendert (Lotto) drop off and later a bigger group with Richie Porte (Sky) and Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) also lost contact. That group managed to get back up later on.

4 riders on the move

Rudy Molard (Cofidis), Arnaud Gerard (Bretagne) and Thomas Damuseau (Argos-Shimano) were the first to get a substantial gap but for a long time the peloton would not let them go. At some point Natnael Berhane (Europcar), Alexander Wetterhall (NetApp-Endura) and Martin Velits (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) tried to join the trio but they were reeled back in by the peloton.

Instead, it was Jose Mendes (NetApp-Endura) who fought his way up to the trio after a long chase and finally the peloton let the group go. They managed to build up a gap of more than 4 minutes before the Europcar team of race leader Veilleux decided to give chase. For most of the day Perrig Quemeneur, Kevin Reza, Anthony Charteau and Cyril Gautier kept the gap between 4 and 5 minutes.

Damuseau hunting KOM points

Damuseau was also in yesterday's escape and started the day just 5 points behind Veilleux in the mountains classification. He made sure to pick up maximum points on the day's first 4 climbs to move himself into the lead in the battle for the polka-dot jersey.

A number of crashes brought down Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel), Romain Sicard (Euskaltel), Mitchell Docker (Orica-GreenEdge) and Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil) and while all got back on their bikes, they were certainly not unhurt. It did little to help their recovery that Europcar significantly upped the pace on the day's most difficult climb, the Cote de Communal with around 45km to go.

Riders drop off

Riders now started to drop off with Thor Hushovd (BMC), Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) and a sick Andrew Talansky (Garmin) being some of the biggest names to lose contact. Just over the top of the climb, Omega Pharma-Quick Step hit the front with Sylvain Chavanel as the Belgian team wanted to set up Meersman for the sprint and the gap was quickly brought back to less than a minute.

With a 50 second advantage and 31km still to race, Molard attacked his companions and while Mendes decided to chase, Damuseau and Gerard gave up and were caught by the peloton soon after. The same happened to Mendes while the young Molard was able to build his gap up to more than a minute over a peloton now led by Nikolas Maes, Frantisek Rabon and Martin Velits from Omega Pharma-Quick Step.

New attacks go clear

On the day's penultimate climb with a little more than 20km to go, Pieter Serry took over at the front of the main group while attacks started to go off. Juan-Antonio Flecha (Vacansoleil) accelerated and was later joined by Warren Barguil (Argos-Shimano) while Laurent Didier for a little while dangled in between. However, all riders were brought back just after the top of the category 4 ascent.

Serry continued to power along and with 15km to go, it was finally over for Molard. The Belgian team of Meersman was in no mood to allow any further attacks and so Kwiatkowski hit the front hard at the bottom of the day's final climb with 12km to go.

Action on the final climb

Riders now dropped off in large numbers, one of them being Bouhanni who had fought his way back to the peloton. Meanwhile, Jose Herrada (Movistar) attacked but he was later passed by an aggressive Ivan Santaromita (BMC).

Kevin Seeldraeyers (Astana) was another one to try his hand but the most successful was Taaramae who burst clear of the peloton to crest the summit alone in the lead. Meanwhile, Kwiatkowski was still at the head of the peloton which had picked up all other attackers.

Bouhanni was not far behind at the top but the fast pace meant that it was impossible for him to get back on. Instead, a furious chase of Taaramae ensued. At some point, the Estonian appeared to have a good chance but that all changed when Cannondale hit the front to set up Viviani for his dominant win.

Result:

1. Elia Viviani 4.39.15

2. Gianni Meersman

3. Tony Gallopin

4. Reinhardt Van Rensburg

5. Anthony Geslin

6. Armindo Fonseca

7. Bram Tankink

8. Warren Barguil

9. Juan Antonio Flecha

10. Wesley Sulzberger

General classification:

1. David Veilleux 7.56.50

2. Gianni Meersman +1.56

3. Tony Gallopin +1.57

4. Warren Barguil

5. Alejandro Valverde

6. Jakob Fuglsang

7. Chris Froome

8. Richie Porte

9. Angel Madrazo

10. Geraint Thomas

Points classification:

1. Gianni Meersman 24

2. David Veilleux 20

3. Elia Viviani 15

4. Tony Gallopin 12

5. Tom-Jelte Slagter 10

Mountains classification:

1. Thomas Damuseau 55

2. David Veilleux 40

3. Ricardo Garcia 28

4. Jean-Marc Bideau 24

5. Arnaud Gerard 15

Young riders' classification:

1. Tony Gallopin 7.58.47

2. Warren Barguil

3. Angel Madrazo

4. Dominik Nerz

5. Peter Kennaugh

Teams classification:

1. Team Europcar 23.54.24

2. Omega Pharma-Quick Step +1.56

3. Sky Procycling +1.57

4. Radioshack-Leopard

5. Movistar Team