Greg Van Avermaet took the race leader' blue jersey on stage 2 of Tirreno-Adriatico but he was not satisfied with his day after team tactics and the flow of the race in the finale of the stage left him unable to win in Pomarance.
The Olympic road race champion was hoping for a double success on the rolling finale, and the stage victory was his biggest goal for this race as he builds up for the spring Classics.
The Belgian popped the spumante on the podium but his disappointment was evident when he spoke to the media at the race. "The most important thing was the stage win and I'm a bit disappointed because I had legs to do better," he said.
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His BMC Racing Team had Damiano Caruso in the leader's blue jersey after winning Wednesday's team time trial, but Van Avermaet was expected to take it from the Italian as a consequence of a better placing on the stage. BMC's master plan was to win the stage and take the jersey.
However, the finale of the stage proved to be far more aggressive than most teams expected, with Geraint Thomas' attack changing the outcome in spectacular fashion.
Thomas made his move with less than five kilometres to go on the rolling climb up to Pomarance in the hills of Southern Tuscany. Caruso, Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors) and Jonathan Castroviejo (Movistar) went across to him but then Thomas kicked away again as the quartet hesitated. Caruso was unable or unwilling to go after the Welshman, but his presence up front meant Van Avermaet was stuck behind.
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