Eddie Dunbar now in great position after Tour of Alps stage 2 | Video | Sticky Bottle

*Eddie Dunbar is in a great position in the overall at Tour of the Alps after making the select group today as others fell away*

Eddie Dunbar is showing no signs of the chest infection that briefly sidelined him after his Coppi e Bartali win, and the Irishman is in a great position to do something special at Tour of the Alps, with two stages now completed.

The Ineos Grenadiers rider was really impressive in the finale of the opening stage yesterday; going on the attack with about 12kn to go before lighting it up on the front with 3km to go and then still making the favourites' group of just 18 riders.

On today's stage 2, Dunbar was once again with the elite riders. He was part of a 16-strong group sprinting for stage victory after 154km of racing, over four hours, from Primiero San Martino di Castrozza to Lana.

He had a slightly easier ride today as his team mate Pavel Sivakov was in the breakaway, meaning Dunbar and Richie Porte could sit back and let others do the chasing. The riders took on the cat 2 climb of Passo Rolle, the cat 1 Passo della Mendola and then the Passo delle Palade followed by the descent into the finish.

The main breakaway of 10 riders got clear on that opening climb, of about 20km. With Sivakov in that move were: Jonathan Caicedo (EF Education-EasyPost), Matteo Badilatti and Michael Storer (both Groupama-FDJ), Thymen Arensman (Team DSM). Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain Victorious), Miguel Ángel Lopez and Vadim Pronskiy (both Astana), Felix Gall (AG2R Citroën) and Cian Uijtdebroecks (Bora-hansgrohe).

Sivakov proved strongest of the breakaway and was only caught - with Michael Storer (Groupama-FDJ) - inside the final 10km after the riders had swept down the descent and onto the flat roads just before the finish.

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When the last of the breakaway men were caught it was by a select group rather than a peloton. The remains of the bunch had split up on the final climb and down the descent; race leader Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R Citroën) one of those to be distanced.

The stage victory came down to a sprint from the 16-man front group. It was won by Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) from Romain Bardet (Team DSM) and Attila Valter (Groupama-FDJ). Felix Gall (AG2R Citroën) was 4th and then Dunbar was 5th; clearly making sure he was not on the wrong side of any splits in the final sprint to the line.

Bilbao now leads the race overall by six seconds from Bardet, with Valter 3rd at 12 seconds and then Gall 4th at 16 seconds. Gall is on the same time as eight other riders, including Dunbar, all of whom have made the favourites' group on the opening two stages but have not collected any time bonuses yet.

With plenty of climbing to come over the next three days, including a summit finish on Thursday, Dunbar looks like he is in the type of form to emerge as the leader of Ineos Grenadiers on the road this week, ahead of Sivakov and Porte.