Below par Sam Bennett opts out of Giro d'Italia sprint final
Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) won the second stage of the Giro d'Italia today and because of a time bonus on the line he also pulled on the race leader's pink jersey.
By Brian Canty
In contrast to yesterday’s opening stage of the Giro d’Italia where he was in the top 10, Sam Bennett was one of the last riders over the line today.
His team said they had hoped to work for him today but he was not feeling good so the plan was abandoned.
After Lukas Postlberger winning the opening stage and taking the race lead, Bennett's team went into stage 2 on a high.
“After the great success yesterday, we wanted to keep on fighting," said Bora-hansgrohe sports director Christian Pömer.
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"We planned to go for Sam and also to defend the Maglia Rosa but unfortunately Sam felt not good today.
"However, I am so proud of the whole team like I was also yesterday.
"They all did a fantastic job, they were the whole day in front of the peloton and in the final they supported Lukas very well to defend the Maglia Rosa.
"Through the great job, which the boys did we were able to keep the white jersey."
Today’s slow stage featured two significant climbs, and plenty of uncategorised ups and downs.
Bennett opted not to go deep into his energy reserves and instead rolled home in a small group over 12 minutes down.
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Andre Greipel Lotto-Soudal’s executed a textbook lead-out. And he went on to take the win after the early breakaway was caught.
Greipel was also rewarded with the leader’s pink jersey, taking that from the shoulders of yesterday's winner Lukas Postlberger.
The German stayed right towards the nose of the bunch as they screamed into for the finish after a 221-kilometre day from Olbia to Tortoli.
And when he launched his sprint he was simply too strong for everyone else, though Caleb Ewan (Orica-Scott) looked like he had his measure.
His teammates did a great job to engineer the space for him in the finish.
But it wasn’t to be as he and Fernando Gaviria (Quick Step Floors) made contact in the final dash Ewan’s foot came out of the pedal.
It was a frustrating turn of events as he had finished 2nd yesterday and was bitterly disappointed not to win and taken the leader’s jersey.
Today 2nd place went to Roberto Ferrari (UAE Emirates), with Jasper Stuyven (Trek Segafredo) taking third.
Ireland's Philip Deignan put in a great shift for Team Sky. He did some huge turns for their joint team leaders Mikel Landa and Geraint Thomas.
The latter was eighth across the line and is 11th overall. However, the general classification men have not come out to show themselves on these opening sprinters’ stages.
Deignan was 1:23 down and is 2:36 down overall in 138th, though his overall position is insignificant.
Tomorrow's stage is a relatively short one at 148 kilometres and it will be very quick, with winds of up to 40kph expected.
There is just one category four climb with 40 kilometres to go but nothing too hard to break up the race.
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