Video - Dunwoody takes first U23 Giro result, climbs now loom

Italy's Davide Donati of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe Rookies wins stage 2, with Seth Dunwoody, far left, in blue kit (Photo: Massimo Paolone)

Seth Dunwoody (Bahrain Victorious Development Team) claimed 5th place on today's stage 2 at Giro d'Italia Next Gen; the day won by one of the Irishman's big rivals on the U23 scene, Davide Donati (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe Rookies).

It was Donati who denied Dunwoody the biggest win of his career back in April when he beat him for victory, in a bike throw on the line, to win U23 Paris-Roubaix.

Today, the verdict was not quite as close, with Donati proving very good value and winning a mass bunch sprint into Crotone after 154km of racing.

Dunwoody, on the right side of the bunch, went early in the sprint but a number of riders, Donati and those on his wheel, managed to pass the Irishman.

And though it was a missed chance for the Dunwoody, he was close today. In coming days, with a slightly harder run to a finish, he should be able to improve today's performance, and hopefully add to his stage win from 12 months ago.

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Adam Rafferty, centre in purple kit, on the road during stage 2, with tomorrow's stage 3 looking suited to the Co Tyrone man (Photo: Fabio Ferrari)

The other three Irish riders in the race all finished in the bunch today, after the last survivors from the six-man breakaway were only caught with 2km remaining.

David Gaffney (Hagens Berman Jayco), in his first year as an U23, was 61st today, Liam O'Brien (Lidl-Trek Future Racing) was 70th, and Adam Rafferty (Hagens Berman Jayco), also a stage winner last year, was 80th .

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They were all on the same time as stage victor Donati, who also takes the race lead from yesterday's stage 1 winner Kasper Haugland (Decathlon CMA CGM Development Team) of Norway.

After two stages suited to the sprinters, the riders face a much grippier stage tomorrow, when they will race 166km from Sibari to Villa d'Agri di Marsicovetere.

Though there are no major mountains, and there is only one categorised climb - a 9km cat 2 averaging 5.2 per cent gradient after 44km - the stage involves 3,200m of elevation gain.

The riders will spend almost all of the day either climbing - much of it on gentle gradients - or descending. And though there is no major mountain as an obvious location where the race would split apart, it looks like a challenging route.

O'Brien, who is one of the general classification favourites in this race, will look to finish in the GC group and keep his chances intact, ahead of the bigger mountains to come.

It is hard to see the stage suiting Dunwoody, given he is a sprinter and classics man. But Rafferty and Gaffney are definitely suited to the terrain; the stage perhaps most suited to Rafferty.

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