Giro 2021 Favourites stage 2: First fast finishers showdown

Who’ll succeed Arnaud Démare? Last year, the Frenchman was by far the fastest finisher on the Giro. He won four stages and took home the maglia ciclamino.

But, to be honest, the world’s best sprinters were not in Italy last year. Caleb Ewan, Sam Bennett and Wout van Aert – all three winning two sprints at the Tour de France – did not take part in the Giro.

Ewan does ride the Giro this season though. As he did in 2019, when he took two stages and was the most successful sprinter on the Italian grand tour.

Groenewegen returns to racing after a nine-month ban. The race in which he caused Jakobsen’s horror crash at the 2020 Tour de Pologne was his last one, so it remains to be seen if he is still as fast as he used to be.

Favourites 2nd stage 2021 Giro d’Italia

*** Caleb Ewan, Dylan Groenewegen
** Tim Merlier, Elia Viviani, Giacomo Nizzolo
* Peter Sagan, Fernando Gaviria, David Dekker, Matteo Moschetti

Another interesting read: route stage 2 Giro d’Italia 2021.

Giro d’Italia 2021 stage 2: finale route, profiles

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finale profile