LIVE Giro d’Italia | Second stage started without Gesink dismounted, Pogacar on the hunt for pink? | Giro

The second stage has started, without the first step-off Robert Gesink.

There is already a lot of climbing in the first days of the Giro. Today the riders will cross three categorized mountains.

• Oasi Zegna (third category)
• Nelva (third category)
• Santuario di Oropa (first category, uphill finish)

Jhonatan Narváez starts today in the pink jersey. The rider from Ecuador was surprisingly too strong for Tadej Pogacar in the opening stage, so the Slovenian will be looking for revenge. The ride starts with 85 flat kilometers, which is just the calm before the storm. Then it becomes a bit hillier and the peloton comes over two climbs of the third category. The spectacle is only expected on the last climb.

It is at the top of the final climb Sanctuary of Oropa, the largest Marian shrine in the Alps. The road there will feel like an ordeal for the lesser climbing gods. The climb counts 11.8 kilometers with an average gradient of 6.2. What makes the climb so difficult is the irregularity, the road also slopes up 13 percent in places. The devil is mainly in the last five kilometers.

It is also the place where Tom Dumoulin laid the foundation for the overall victory of the Giro in 2017 and where Marco Pantani started a huge catch-up race in 1999 after mechanical problems, passing 49 riders and finishing first.

Robert Gesink does not start. According to his team Visma – Lease a Bike, he suffered a fracture in one hand on Saturday in a crash during the first stage from Venaria Reale to Turin. Gesink was no longer able to avoid some riders who fell in front of him and crashed into it asphalt. He crossed the finish line almost fifteen minutes later than stage winner Narváez.

Good morning! Welcome to our live blog of the second stage of the Giro d’Italia. Follow everything about the first real mountain ride here. Will Tadej Pogacar take the pink today?