Stage 2

The road

At the start

Wiggins in pink, two seconds of it

Bradley Wiggins wears the first maglia rosa of his life, two seconds up on Brent Bookwalter and Cadel Evans, with Vinokourov and Richie Porte inside five. Today is 216 flat kilometres from Amsterdam to Utrecht, over two small climbs carrying the first mountains points of the race and a sprint at Houten. The roads are narrow, furnished with islands, and lined the whole way.

How it was won

1. 140 km to go

   The maglia rosa goes down

   Forty kilometres out a crash brings down around thirty riders and the race leader is among them. Wiggins gets up and chases; Martin Kohler does not, the first man out of this Giro.

2. 224 km to go

   Voss is caught on the edge of Utrecht

   Paul Voss attacks his own breakaway, is hauled back by Rick Flens, and then Flens goes himself in front of a Dutch crowd. Sky reel him in with twenty-four kilometres left.

3. 37 km to go

   Fifty down with seven to go

   On narrow, furniture-strewn city roads a crash takes down close to fifty riders. Filippo Pozzato lies still longest of all before remounting, and half the lead-out trains never come back.

4. 4At the line

   Farrar out of the wreckage

   Fifty-eight riders are left at the front. Tyler Farrar, who hit a traffic island himself with fifty-five kilometres to go, comes off Julian Dean's wheel at 250 metres and beats Matthew Goss for his first Giro stage.

The result