SAN SALVO, Italy (AP) 鈥 Jonathan Milan sprinted to victory in a crash-affected finale of the second stage of the Giro d鈥橧talia on Sunday, while pre-race favorite Remco Evenepoel held on to the leader鈥檚 pink jersey.
It is Milan's first Grand Tour and the 22-year-old Italian punched his fist in the air in delight as he crossed the line. The Bahrain Victorious rider edged out David Dekker and Kaden Groves in a bunch sprint at the end of the 202-kilometer (126-mile) route from Teramo to San Salvo.
"It鈥檚 something that is incredible, I鈥檓 without words," Milan said. "I cannot believe it because it鈥檚 my first Giro, second stage.
鈥淵esterday I did a nice time trial, I was quite happy, I was pushing good but I could never imagine that today was coming a victory.鈥
Mads Pedersen and Mark Cavendish, two of the riders who would have hoped to contest the sprint, were caught up in a crash near the end. That came shortly before the three-kilometer mark and so also caused time gaps in the general classification.
Evenepoel finished safely in the peloton to maintain his 22-second advantage over Filippo Ganna, with Jo茫o Almeida seven seconds further back.
鈥淓verything was pretty fine," said Evenepoel, who rides for Soudal Quick-Step. "We were in the front so we were out of trouble but it was a pretty nasty crash I think.
"I actually saw it happen so we know who we actually can blame for this crash, but that鈥檚 racing ... it wasn鈥檛 a nice move so luckily we stayed out of trouble and arrived safe.鈥
Ottawa's Derek Gee was 161st in the stage and 78th overall.
Evenepoel had stormed to victory in the on Saturday. Primo啪 Rogli膷, who is considered Evenepoel鈥檚 , was 43 seconds behind the Belgian.
There was an early breakaway in the opening road stage of the race as Paul Lapeira, Thomas Champion, Mattia Bais, Stefano Gandin and Alessandro Verre got away from the start.
Verre sat up shortly after the first of two category-four climbs and Lapeira dropped back to the peloton after the second. The rest of the breakaway were swept up not long after, with 38 kilometers (24 miles) remaining, and they gave each other fistbumps after a long time out front.
Monday鈥檚 third stage is a 216-kilometer (134-mile) route from Vasto that features two categorised climbs before the uphill finish in Melfi.
The Giro ends in Rome on May 28.
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