The first mountain finish awaited the peloton on the second day of the Giro d'Italia. The route took the riders from San Francesco al Campo to the pilgrimage church of Oropa, with around 2,000 meters of climbing spread over the last 70 km. After no one was able to follow Pogačar's decisive attack around 4.5km before the finish, a battle for second place erupted behind him. Florian Lipowitz, who rode together with Daniel Martínez in a 15-man chasing group, set the pace for his Colombian teammate well. In the end, Dani finished a strong second, 27 seconds behind the day's winner Pogačar, and thereby improved to third place in the overall standings, while Florian finished the day in fifth place.
Result
From the Finish Line
Dani Martínez:
It wasn't an easy stage, but in the end I felt pretty good and was ultimately able to take second. Florian and I finished with the group of favourites and were able to improve our overall ranking in the end. Today's result is great for our morale and confidence, but we still have almost the whole Giro ahead of us.
Bernie Eisel, Sports Director:
It was a very good weekend for us. Second place for Dani and fifth place for Florian are impressive results for both riders. The last few kilometers were not easy, because Dani had a mechanical. Our team car couldn't reach him in time, but he managed to fix it himself. This weekend was important for us, but we know that in the end it's the whole Giro that counts. In the first few days we were able to see how the team works together and how the guys can perform. It's great to see that Dani, when he's in top form, can keep up with Pogačar. Unfortunately, he had that incident, which put him at a slight disadvantage, but all in all it was a successful stage for us.