Pink jersey wrong turn provides drama at Giro Next Gen stage 2

Stage two of the Giro Next Gen was won on Monday by Davide Donati. The Italian from Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe Rookies proved the strongest in the sprint. Kasper Haugland held onto his leader's jersey, despite briefly taking a wrong turn at a roundabout in the finale.

Stage one had served up a real spectacle. Haugland, riding for Decathlon CMA CGM's development team, launched a solo attack with 56 kilometres still to race. The young Norwegian had just one second to spare at the line, earning him the first pink jersey of the race. Incidentally, his interview afterwards is one you won't want to have missed.

The expectation was that the leader's jersey would be defended fairly comfortably by Haugland and his Decathlon team on Monday in stage two. The 154-kilometre stage from Tropea to Crotone contained relatively little climbing, so a sprint was also on the cards in the Italian coastal town.

After a fairly low-key opening phase, the peloton allowed six riders to break clear. Mees Vlot (Picnic-PostNL development team) was among them, the lone Dutchman in the group. Together with Johan Blanc (Groupama-FDJ development team) and four Italians, Vlot helped build a lead of up to three minutes.

Understandable, perhaps, given the peloton had badly misjudged Haugland the day before. This time, the bunch genuinely wanted a sprint, although the last escapees once again held on for a surprisingly long time on Monday too. Suddenly, we saw Haugland's pink jersey briefly take a wrong turn, but the Norwegian quickly rejoined the peloton.

With just over two kilometres to go, despite one final effort from Vlot, it really was over for the breakaway, and by that point the sprint trains were already in full swing. In the end it was Donati who came out on top convincingly in the sprint, ahead of Aldo Tailleu (Visma, second) and Aubin Sparfel (Decathlon, third).

Author: David Bavin-Hobbs | LinkedIn | Email