Bahrain to face UAE, P23 India and Thailand SPORTS 2424 Sunday, May 6, 2018 Viviani claims Giro d’Italia second stage Rohan Dennis moves into overall lead after winning intermediate time bonus

Tel Aviv he didn’t go full,” admitted Dennis. ustralia’s Rohan Dennis took the race leader’s “It was good to see him get the stage win after pink jersey off reigning champion Tom not giving it to me, but he was kind let’s be honest!” ADumoulin as Italy’s Elia Viviani won the Giro Dennis has now worn the leader’s jersey at all d’Italia second stage in Tel Aviv yesterday. three Grand Tours, following opening stage success Dennis claimed three bonus seconds in an at the in 2015 and last year’s Vuelta intermediate sprint earlier on the 167-kilometre a Espana. stage from Haifa to overcome his two-second deficit An earlier three-man break was gobbled up as from Friday’s opening time-trial in Jerusalem. Dennis’s BMC team tried to get their man into a Race favourite finished safely in the position to contest the intermediate sprint. peloton after a bunch sprint in the Mediterranean Dennis now leads by one second from Dumoulin coastal resort of Tel Aviv. with Belgian Victor Campenaerts third at 3sec. The 32-year-old Briton was nursing cuts and Canadian Guillaume Boivin attacked again in abrasions to his right-hand side, suffered in a the final 60km but had been caught long before the training crash in Jerusalem on Friday. final 10km as the sprinters’ teams left nothing to He had surprisingly lost 37 seconds to Dutchman chance. (AFP) Dumoulin -- his chief rival for overall victory -- in the race against the clock, later admitting he had Results: been riding in pain. Stage two: Haifa – Tel Aviv (167km) Yesterday, Olympic omnium champion Viviani, 29, seemed to 1 Elia Viviani (Ita) Quick-Step Floors, in 03 hrs 51 min 20 secs have left his charge to the line quite 2 Jakub Mareczko (Ita) Wilier Triestina-Selle Italia late but burst through from well 3 Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Hansgrohe behind to emerge from the back 4 Niccolo Bonifazio (Ita) Bahrain-Merida wheel of Irishman Sam Bennett and surge to victory. 5 Sacha Modolo (Ita) EF Education First-Drapac “The win, everyone was expecting 6 Clement Venturini (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale but doing it is never easy,” Viviani, 7 Ryan Gibbons (RSA) Dimension Data who won his second stage at the Giro, told Eurosport. 8 Manuel Belletti (Ita) Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec “I was really nervous this 9 Baptiste Planckaert (Bel) Katusha-Alpecin morning, I tried to overcome a bit 10 Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) BMC Racing Team, all same time this emotion but it’s not easy.” Italian Jakub Mareczko was Overall classification: second with Bennet taking third. 1 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing Team, in 04 hrs 03 min 21secs Dennis, 27, had edged out Viviani 2 (Ned) Team Sunweb, at 1s at an intermediate sprint 91km into 3 Victor Campenaerts (Bel) Lotto Soudal, at 3s the stage to claim the three bonus seconds he needed to take the race 4 José Gonçalves (Por) Katusha-Alpecin, at 13s lead. 5 (GBr) Katusha-Alpecin, at 17s (Cyclingweekly) “I think Viviani, he sprinted but Elia Viviani celebrates

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