Coppi e Bartali Stage 2: Corioni dupes the sprinters with final kilometer attack

The second day of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali was an expected sprinter party, but unfortunately, the sprinters lost their chance when Acqua e Sapone's Claudio Corioni shot out of the foaming field in Rovigo to take the win by a few precious meters.

His team-mate Rafai Chtioui was a very substantial part of that win, ripping clear inside the final two kilometres with Corioni glued to his wheel, and then dragging him along for approximately a kilometre before the Italian surged ahead for the win.

The superb tactic kept 21 year old Italian sprinting sensation, Andrea Guardini, from his seventh victory of the still very young season. Androni Giocattoli's Roberto Ferrari finished right behind Guardini in third, and with that result, assumed the race lead from teammate, Emmanuele Sella.

Wednesday's win was the 28 year old's second individual professional victory, coming almost exactly six years after winning the second stage of the defunct Setmana Catalana, which has been replaced by the currently running Volta a Catalunya (he also has a team time trial win to his credit at the 2008 Vuelta a España with Liquigas).

Androni still holds a commanding position atop the general classification with Ferrari on top followed by six of his teammates four seconds back. Lampre-ISD and FDJ sit at nine seconds adrift. The overall leaderboard should begin to take shape tomorrow, as racers face a testing 155 kilometers in the hills.

From The Beginning
Bright sun greeted the racers and followed them along their 193 kilometer jaunt from Rovigo to the Adriatic Coast and back. Flat roads were the order of the day, and so was the traditional formula: early break, chase, bunch sprint.

The break rolled off 21 kilometers into the stage, populated by Joel Eglin (Price), Kristian Forbord (Amore e Vita), and Christopher Stevenson (Sparebanken Vest Ridley). Soon after assembling into a trio, they became five, when they were joined by two De Rosa-Ceramica Flaminia riders, Gianluca Maggiore and Stefano Borchi.

The lead gradually blossomed to three minutes, but the field was not going to make any errors en route to their bunch sprint. Supposedly. Androni Giocattoli defended Sella's lead with aplomb, and when it came time, the sprinter teams did their duty to seal the fate of the break.

The break was duly laid to rest on the finishing circuits around Rovigo, but an aggressive finale opened the door for one of those rare moves when a rider is able to leap out of a field intent on a bunch sprint and seize victory. In this case, the lottery winner was Corioni.

The sprinters will take a back seat tomorrow, as the race heads into the mountains followed by a difficult finishing circuit. That will undoubtedly see Androni Giocattoli's stranglehold at the top of the general classification tested.