Viviani gets Sky on the scoreboard

It was the usual nervous first road stage that ended with two laps in downtown Genova. A handful of nasty looking crashes marred the finale and the last of them was bad enough to brake the field up in groups, with Ag2r's Domenico Pozzovivo getting caught in the back and ending up losing 1:09 on the other favorites. Igor Anton also lost 19 seconds.

With a slightly reduced group the finale became hectic and disorganized. The GC teams led the way to keep their men safe and the sprinters only appeared at the front at the very last moment. Trek tried to take control for Nizzolo but ran out of manpower. Orica tried an early sneak attack with Lancaster going like a rocket early with Matthews on his wheel but with the slight incline in the final few hundred meters it was a doomed move. Next to overestimate his strength was André Greipel who launched his usual  powerful sprint from too far out and had to see himself run out of steam as LottoNL's Moreno Hofland came flying past and on his wheel Viviani held off his final burst of speed with surgeon-like precision to blast past the Dutchman in the final meters.

Michael Matthews now gets to enjoy pink for the second year in a row thanks to finishing ahead of his teammate Gerrans on the stage. He probably would have preferred a stagewin but a Maglia Rosa and a trip to the podium is nice too.

TOP 10 Stage 2