Cycling: Ulissi beats Sagan to win Giro's second stage
Diego Ulissi sprinted to victory on the second stage of the Giro d'Italia in Sicily on Sunday.
SICILY (Reuters) - Diego Ulissi sprinted to victory on the second stage of the Giro d Italia in Sicily on Sunday as the home nation continued its superb start to the race.
After world champion Filippo Ganna s win on the opening day time trial, Ulissi (UAE Emirates) produced a strong burst on the uphill finish in Agrigento after a 149km ride.
Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) finished safely in the bunch with the overall race favourites to retain the magliot rosa going into Monday s third stage which takes the riders up Mount Etna.
Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) looked primed to win the stage when he joined Ulissi at the front with 500m remaining but the Slovakian could not respond as the 31-year-old Ulissi accelerated to the line.
Mikkel Frolich Honore (Den) Deceuninck-Quickstep finished in third place on the stage.
Ganna remains 22 seconds ahead of Portugal s Joao Almeida in the general classification with race favourite Geraint Thomas a further second back but the Italian sprinter knows he will be handing over the jersey on Monday as the climbing starts.
A five-rider breakaway of Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Ben Gastauer (AG2R La Mondiale), Mattia Bais (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec), Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani-CSF-Faizane) and Etienne Van Empel (Vini Zabu-KTM) spent the day out front before being caught with 8km remaining.
With the last 5km all uphill it was a stage made for the puncheurs like Sagan but he was left disappointed again as his 15-month wait for a race win continued.
It was Ulissi s seventh Giro stage win.
It proved another terrible day for the Astana team as young Russian Alexandr Vlasov abandoned with a stomach illness, robbing his team mate of a backup option to Jakob Fuglsang in the overall classification.
The previous day Astana s Miguel Angel Lopez crashed at high speed near the end of the time trial and needed surgery.
