Intro:

In his home country, Team Sky's Elia Viviani sprinted to victory in the second stage of the Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) on Sunday (10 May), as Australian Michael Matthews (Orica GreenEdge) assumed the overall lead.

Script:

Team Sky's Elia Viviani timed his sprint to perfection to win the second stage of the Giro d'Italia on Sunday. The weekend result also showed Michael Matthews moving into the overall lead on a day dominated by crashes.

The race started off with Simon Gerrans up front, but he was quickly taken over by a five-man breakaway group of Marco Frapporti, Lukasz Owsian, Eugert Zhupa, Giacomo Berlato and Bert-Jan Lindeman.

But after an initial sluggish start on the peloton, the gap was quickly reduced to just two minutes with 30 kilometres to go.

With a close pack, crashes seemed inevitable. A handful of minor accidents and bumps took place, seeing Contador to the front.

Nairo Quintana went down just a short while later, but the front group were quickly being caught up with.

But with 3 kilometres to go, Team Sky went in for the kill. Moreno Hofland went front at first, but Elia Viviani edged him out expertly by half a wheel to claim his first win in a grand tour.

Michael Matthews, of the Orica Green-Edge team that won Saturday's team time trial, finished seventh to take the leaders pink jersey from teammate Gerrans.

The third stage will see the riders battle it out in the technical climbing stage, and will take place on Monday.