A voi! Stage 2: Calling all sprinters

And the Lord sayeth to the GT organizers "on the second day thou shalt have the first big sprint bash.Thine sprint bash shalt be on the second day. On the first you are not allowed it nor are you on the third. For the second day shalt be the sprint bash" And so it was and so it ever shall be. The beauty of these first days that there are only 130 or so fresh riders who all think they can win on the day and that makes for what organizers like to call "an interesting scenario". The translation of that into plain english is "bloody chaos". But, we are used to this, day one has potential to be a horror show but also potential to some of the best and most intense sprinting. In this case the race will finish with two laps in downtown Genoa after a ride along the Ligurian coast.

Surely the Giro has been looking with envy at the 4Jours de Dunkerque and their absurd stage 2 finish. We thought RCS had the monopoly on lunacy like that but clearly the master has become the apprentice in this case. This finale looks really quite tame in comparison. A 90 degree right at 2 km out and then a 90 degree left at 1 km followed by a straight run to the finish. It does seem a bit too easy doesn't it?

Chi vincerà?

Clearly no break is going to get anywhere here even if there isn't an obvious team that will take charge. Enough teams will have plenty of interest in keeping this in check and at this point everyone will still be happy enough to play nice. And with a fairly straightforward finish teams should be able to set up nicely. This smells like a good start for Lampre and Sacha Modolo who otherwise has a tendency to get lost when things get complicated. The finish should work well for Greipel too of course but him and first days just don't mix too well.

Amy's Food & Vino del giorno

Wine: Rocche del Gatto Rossese 2012  
I know. I don't like to repeat producers, but I could not resist a Ligurian red. Plus, as I mentioned yesterday: Fortress of the Cat. Plus, a new grape. Google tells me that "Rossese immigrated to Italy from France, brought most likely into Liguria by soldiers of the powerful Genoese Doria family in the high Renaissance."

Food: Focaccia. In honor of the herbs prevalent in Ligurian cuisine and all of the mentions of flowers in the region, I included radish flowers, rather than more traditional herbs. The basic recipe I used can be found here.

For more on Amy's food & wine visit her WineBookGirl blog