Giro d'Italia 2017: Andre Greipel Takes Pink Jersey in Stage 2 of Race

Andre Greipel of Lotto–Soudal won the second stage of the 2017 Giro d'Italia as he edged a bunch sprint to take the pink jersey in impressive fashion on the second of three days in Sardinia.

An early five-man break was caught with relative ease with 46 kilometres to go on Tuesday, and a dramatic finish saw Greipel prevail after Orica-Scott's Caleb Ewan had trouble in the sprint.

Roberto Ferrari of team UAE took an impressive second, while Trek-Segafredo's Jasper Stuyven was third. 

Here are the results from Stage 2 in the 100th edition of the Giro, along with the updated general classification standings:

#	Rider	Team	Time
1	Andre Greipel	Lotto Soudal	6:05:18
2	Roberto Ferrari	Team UAE Emirates	same time
3	Jasper Stuyven	Trek-Segafredo	same time
4	Fernando Gaviria	Quick-Step Floors	same time
5	Kristian Sbaragli	Dimension Data	same time
6	Enrico Battaglin	Team LottoNl-Jumbo	same time
7	Ryan Gibbons	Dimension Data	same time
8	Geraint Thomas	Team Sky	same time
9	Caleb Ewan	Orica-Scott	same time
10	Valerio Conti	Team UAE Emirates	same time

#	Rider	Team	Time
1	Andre Greipel	Lotto Soudal	11:18:39
2	Lukas Postlberger	Bora - Hansgrohe	0:00:04
3	Caleb Ewan	Orica-Scott	0:00:08
4	Roberto Ferrari	Team UAE Emirates	same time
5	Jasper Stuyven	Trek-Segafredo	0:00:10
6	Pavel Brutt	Gazprom–RusVelo	0:00:12
7	Kristian Sbaragli	Dimension Data	0:00:14
8	Ryan Gibbons	Dimension Data	same time
9	Fernando Gaviria	Quick-Step Floors	same time
10	Enrico Battaglin	Team LottoNl-Jumbo	same time

Recap

The Giro's official Twitter account provided the profile of Saturday's gruelling 221-kilometre run from Olbia to Tortoli:

A five-man group of Daniel Teklehaimanot, Lukasz Owsian, Ilia Koshevoy, Evgeny Shalunov and Simone Andreetta made an early breakaway stick.

They were caught just after the summit of Genna Silana—the second categorised climb of the day—but not before Dimension Data's Teklehaimanot attacked brilliantly from the break group to take the blue King of the Mountains jersey, per Eurosport UK:

The pace was pedestrian most of the day, and as the lengthy final descent progressed, it became likely the stage would be decided in a bunch sprint.

The peloton was together when the riders reached the final 10 kilometres and the only flat section of the stage. 

Katusha's Ilnur Zakarin, a potential GC contender, managed to recover brilliantly and finish in the pack after he looked set to lose valuable time after a late mechanical.

Pink-jersey wearer Lukas Postlberger tried to repeat his triumph of Stage 1 with a late attack, but he could not escape the big sprinters.

Orica–Scott led out the finish, but Ewan had a pedal problem at the key moment after a slight collision with Fernando Gaviria, and German Greipel powered home to take the victory.