LIVE Giro d’Italia | Fall doesn’t bother Pogacar: Slovenian takes solo lead on final climb | Giro

Pogacar’s gap to his first pursuers is half a minute. Geraint Thomas and Ben O’Connor are now best of the rest.

The spectacle begins. Majka gives up and that is the starting signal for Pogacar to accelerate. He leaves everyone behind.

UAE increases the pace on the climb and catches up with Piccolo. Yet the team itself is also the victim of the high pace. The pacers have to let go and Pogacar only has Majka with him.

Meanwhile, Geraint Thomas finished second in the intermediate sprint behind leader Piccolo. The Briton therefore takes two bonus seconds.

Pogacar quickly repaired the damage and is back in the peloton, which will soon start the climb to Oropa.

Tadej Pogacar falls. He drops out of the peloton with a flat front tire. He therefore goes through the bend very carefully, but he still slides down. He has to give chase to start the final climb with the peloton.

Piccolo is still in the lead and therefore takes some mountain points on top of the Nelva.

Andrea Piccolo is the first to reach the top of Oasi Zegna, the first categorized climb of the day. The Italian had left his fellow leaders behind him moments earlier and was now riding solo, just under three minutes ahead of the peloton. The gap to his first pursuers is one minute.

For what it’s worth, the frontrunners are still fighting for the Intergiro sprint. Fiorelli comes through first and takes the maximum points and three bonus seconds.

Caleb Ewan is the fastest in the peloton. Danny van Poppel is just behind that.

Fall involving Olav Kooij, among others, against the asphalt. The damage seems not to be too bad for everyone and they have left again.

It is still the calm before the storm in this stage. The race is controlled from the peloton and the gap to the leading group slowly decreases. Now it’s still two and a half minutes.

The leading group quickly forms. Five Italians opt for the adventure today and their lead is already approaching four minutes.

• Filippo Fiorelli
• Marcellusi Martin
• Christian Scaroni
• Andrea Piccolo
• Davide Bais

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?