A three-way, 150-kilometre battle on the Giro d’Italia’s stage 2 for the right to wear the race’s King of the Mountains award finally went to Omar Fraile (Dimension Data), already the outright winner of the same classification last year in the Vuelta a España.
Fraile, Maarten Tjallingii (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Nippo Vini Fantini’s Giacomo Berlato broke away almost as soon as the riders had headed out of Arnhem, gaining nearly ten minutes advantage and with one key objective - maximum points, a total of three, on the King of the Mountains classification. Not much but that was enough, so early in the Giro d’Italia and in largely flat Holland, to earn a trip onto the winners’ podium in Nijmegen.
Right up until the closing kilometres the collaboration between the trio was good, but tellingly it only wavered when Fraile powered away to claim maximum points in the day's only King of the Mountains climb on Berg en Dal, 36 kilometres from the finish. As the peloton subsequently picked up the pace behind, Berlato, the last of the trio to throw in the towel, was finally caught after nearly 180 kilometres off the front.
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“We’d been told the day before by management that it would be a good idea to get in the break because there would be a classification on offer at the end of the day,” Fraile, already last year the winner of the King of the Mountains in the Vuelta a España and in the Vuelta al País Vasco, said at the finish.
“Doing this was a good way to start the Giro d’Italia. It’s true that on Monday the ‘real’ Giro starts, but I want to hold onto it for as long as possible, even if the points you get on little climbs like this are insignificant in the long run.”
More on this story:
• Giro d'Italia stage 2 highlights – Video
• Giro d'Italia stage 2: Finish line quotes
• Giro d'Italia: Kittel wins stage 2
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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