While yesterday's first road stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico looked on paper like it may suit strong road men who can also sprint - such as Ireland's Sam Bennett - it proved a day when classics men and the overall contenders were to the fore.
And sensing he was not on a great day and was not going to be in the hunt for stage honours, Bennett decided to pull the plug on his effort for the day.
He focussed on getting to the finish in the best condition position with his eye on other stage win opportunities that will hopefully infold in coming days and eventually came home near the back of the field just over 13 minutes down.
Zdenek Štybar (Etixx - Quick-Step) took victory just in front of an elite group after five hours in the saddle and he also lifted the race leader's jersey from BMC's Daniel Oss, who was wearing it courtesy of his team's winning ride in the stage 1 TTT.
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Stage 2: Castelnuovo - Montalto di Castro (176km)
1 Zdenek Štybar (Cze) Etixx - Quick-Step 5:10:03
2 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff Team 0:00:01
3 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Dimension Data
4 Simon Clarke (Aus) Cannondale Pro Cycling
5 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team
6 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team
7 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team
8 Tiesj Benoot (Bel) Lotto Soudal
9 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Team Sky
10 Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Etixx - Quick-Step
178 Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Argon 18 0:13:21
General Classification
1 Zdenek Štybar (Cze) Etixx - Quick-Step 5:33:50
2 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team 0:00:09
3 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team
4 Damiano Caruso (Ita) BMC Racing Team
5 Daniel Oss (Ita) BMC Racing Team
6 Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Etixx - Quick-Step 0:00:11
7 Bob Jungels (Lux) Etixx - Quick-Step
8 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff Team 0:00:14
9 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ 0:00:18
10 Sébastien Reichenbach (Swi) FDJ
177 Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Argon 18 0:15:06
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