UAE keeps winning: Ivo Oliveira attacks in final kilometer and wins stage 2 in the Giro d’Abruzzo

On Tuesday, Covi claimed the first leader's jersey of the Italian four-day race. After his team's hard work, UAE Team Emirates - XRG, the Italian turned out to be the fastest in the uphill sprint, beating Filippo Fiorelli (second) and Alessandro Fancellu (third). On Wednesday, another difficult stage followed, in which the riders had to climb more than 2500 meters in elevation over a distance of just 138 kilometers. So it was quite explosive!

After a fast pace in the opening phase, which meant no one could get away, the riders reached the first serious climb of the day after just under 40 kilometers. The Forcella di Acciano, with its average gradient of 9.4% and length of almost 5 kilometers, could blow up the race. While the attacks failed on the flat, and the riders had to wait at a railroad crossing, we saw people break away from the peloton on the first steep sections.

Simone Pettili of Intermarché-Wanty and Samuele Zoccarato of Team Polti VisitMalta were the first two escapees, after which Filip Gruszczynski, Federico Guzzo, and Ivan Toselli launched a counterattack. Just after the descent, Pettili and Zoccarato had a half-minute lead on the chasing trio and a minute on the peloton.

The adventure quickly ended for the three chasers as the peloton swiftly caught them. In the quiet intermediate phase, UAE took control at the head of the pack, keeping Pettili and Zoccarato, who were still leaders in the race, at a maximum of one and a half minutes.

After the intermediate sprint, it was time for the Forca di Penne, which was quite long at 12.7 kilometers. The average gradient of 4.4% ensured that Zoccarato took the lead from the worn-out Pettili. Behind them, we saw several accelerations in the peloton, but after Tudor took over the head of the peloton, things remained calm.

UAE took the peloton's lead again after the descent and ensured that Zoccarato's lead was slowly diminished as they approached the final. The finale consisted of an initial uncategorized incline, after which the riders would descend to the final climb of 3.6 kilometers at 5.1%. Zoccarato was caught on that first incline as UAE pulled the peloton tightly together.

The Italian Marco Martini tried to anticipate the final kilometers, but his acceleration on the flat was neutralized on the first sections of the final climb. Team Polti VisitMalta set the pace, but Ivo Oliveira had the first actual attack in his legs. The Portuguese immediately created a nice gap while Georg Zimmermann tried to catch up behind him. There was still a kilometer to go, but the Portuguese rider kept his lead. Behind him, Fiorelli came in second and Marco Brenner third.