Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) powered away from Tim Merlier (Souda-QuickStep) to claim a convincing sprint win on stage 2 of Tirreno-Adriatico into Follonica.
Merlier went long and opened up out the sprint of the final corner but with Philipsen in his wheel and ready to pounce. The Alpecin fast-man kicked out of his compatriot's slipstream and eased into the lead.
Merlier sat down knowing he was beaten with Philipsen moving clear to his first victory in 2024, with daylight between himself and the rest at the line.
Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) crossed the line third but was relegated after the finish for an irregular sprint. The Eritrean deviated into Axel Zingle's (Cofidis) path during his run to the line and nearly crashed the Frenchman into the barriers.
Zingle was moved into third in the revised results.
"I'm really happy we can finish off already today," said Philipsen after the finish.
"It was, as always, really hectic in the final and I'm happy we could find our way to the finish line and I could do my sprint to win."
Philipsen was leading Merlier until the latter dive-bombed the inside of the final corner, but the eventual winner was aware of the threat and snapped onto Merlier's wheel with just the final few hundred metres to go.
"I felt him coming in the last corner and I knew he had to go. I tried to take his wheel, but I had some shifting problems so I was happy I could find back the right gear and launch my sprint at the right moment," Philipsen said. "It's good to give the team a win."
After a fast, chaotic day, Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) stayed safe in the peloton to keep hold of the leader's blue jersey ahead of stage 3. The third day at the Race of the Two Seas is the longest of the week at 225km from Volterra to Gualdo Tadino.
"We had a tailwind nearly all day and so then everybody was quite fresh so that made it quite hectic and quite dangerous but thank you to my teammates, they all did a great job," said Ayuso.
"They managed to keep me in front until the last three kilometres and then when I passed the 3k banner, I braked and I went to the back and tried to just arrive safe."
How it unfolded
On a cloudy, chilly day, heading south from Camaiore, four riders opened up hostilities on the early climb of the Montemagno, rapidly gaining an advantage of over five minutes.
Davide Bais (Polti-Kometa), the winner of a stage to the Gran Sasso in the 2023 Giro d’Italia was joined by Corratec-Vini Fantini teammates Lorenzo Quartucci and Jan Stockli as well as Filippo Magli (VF-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè).
With a GC gap of 1:08 on GC leader Ayuso, Bais quickly became race leader on the road as the peloton allowed the quartet to gain an advantage of well over five minutes.
A fast first hour of racing and some steady control work by Ineos Grenadiers and UAE Team Emirates behind pulled back the gap to just under three minutes, though, even before the only classified climb of the day, the mid-stage Castellina Marittima hauled into view.
Bais claimed top points at the summit of the long, draggy climb to claim the lead of the mountain's classification.
By the time the four race leaders had come off the descent, the sprinter's teams, headed by Soudal-QuickStep and Alpecin-Deceunink had taken clear control of proceedings.
The four survived as far as the intermediate sprint of Canneto, some 40 kilometres further on, but a lone move by Stockli made it even less likely the four would make it to the finish.
Quartucci, Bais and Magli were swept up with 45 kilometres to go, and the chase of lone breakaway Stockli began in earnest. On flat, broad roads and having been away from the start, it was only a question of time before he was caught and the peloton began upping the pace even further with 37km to go.
With Follonica approaching and an early look at the finishing 18km circuit available, each team was fighting for prime position to see what they would have to do on the second lap of the town to give their sprinter the best opportunity.
The hectic fight through bottlenecking roads and road furniture saw Alexander Kamp (Tudor) and Michael Vink (UAE Team Emirates) crash and Mark Cavendish’s (Astana Qazaqstan) chances go up in smoke with a puncture.
The run for home saw several GC and sprint teams swap positions at the front of the peloton with no one establishing full control in the rapid race for home.
Soudal-QuickStep and Alpecin-Deceuninck were present throughout, but it was Intermarché for Girmay and Uno-X for Alexander Kristoff that were best placed.
The Norwegian team looked set to lead into the crucial final right-hander until Merlier and Philipsen emerged past them to fight out for the win. Philipsen then charged to the line for victory with Merlier, although better than the rest, no match for last season’s top sprinter.
Results
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