Storer dominates with brilliant solo in tough second stage of Tour of the Alps

The Tour of the Alps started on Monday with a stage that started and finished in San Lorenzo Dorsino, where Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek ultimately proved to be the fastest. It was a fine victory for the Italian, but the focus was mainly on how he celebrated and the consequences of his actions after the race. Ciccone has made a habit of throwing his sunglasses into the crowd when he wins, but the UCI deemed this inappropriate and fined him.

This sparked many reactions from colleagues and team managers, but in the end, Ciccone decided not to dwell on it too much at the start of stage two. After all, there was a race to be won, not just any race: the second stage featured five climbs, where he had to defend his leader's jersey.

After two kilometers of racing, Koen Bouwman, competing in his third race for Jayco AlUla, launched an attack. The Dutchman was joined by Lukas Meiler (Voralberg) and Fran Miholjevic (Bahrain Victorious). After 20 kilometers, the trio began the toughest climb of the day with a lead: the Petersberg, 16.2 kilometers at an average gradient of 6%. Miholjevic and Bouwman managed to shake off Meiler, leaving just two riders. Bouwman took the mountain points, but mountain king Finlay Pickering took points behind him, allowing him to retain the mountain jersey.

With only two riders left in the lead, the pace was leisurely. The peloton was able to cruise along without chasing the breakaway too quickly. Picnic PostNL took responsibility for the chase, but otherwise, it remained quiet for a long time. Besides a clumsy but nasty crash, it was a quiet day in the peloton. Ben Zwiehoff (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) collided with the rider in front of him in a tunnel and took five other riders. Salvatore Puccio (INEOS Grenadiers) took the biggest hit: he had to abandon the race.

His compatriot Antonio Tiberi abandoned the race at the same time, but he was not involved in the crash: the Bahrain Victorious rider was ill. Not much later, it was all over for Bouwman: with about 50 kilometers to go, he was caught by the peloton. There were a few breakaways but calm quickly returned to the peloton. A large group continued to the final, where the Obertelfes climb awaited: this vicious climb had to be conquered twice. There, Decathlon AG2R made a big move.

Fifteen riders remained at the high pace, and with that group, they plunged into the descent towards the second passage of the challenging climb. Many riders fell back in the valley, including Dutchmen Sam Oomen (Lidl-Trek) and Thymen Arensman (INEOS Grenadiers). When the road started climbing again, the latter struggled, especially when Felix Gall pulled away. His young teammate Paul Seixas also attacked, but they couldn't shake Ciccone. Michael Storer (Tudor) also performed well, dropping his three breakaway companions before the summit. The Australian came over the top solo and faced a 10-kilometer battle to the finish.

The chasers were joined by Jai Hindley (Red Bull), Romain Bardet (Picnic PostNL), and Jefferson Cepeda (EF Education - EasyPost), but with six riders, they were unable to join forces. Storer was able to extend his lead comfortably. The chase began to pick up speed in the valley, but the Australian bird had already flown. He crossed the finish line solo with a 40-second lead over Seixas in second place, with Bardet finishing third.