ROME (Sky Sports) - Jonathan Milan took his first Grand Tour stage victory with a sprint finish on day two of the Giro d’Italia.
The Bahrain Victorious rider, competing in his home country, crossed the line in San Salvo in four hours, 55 minutes and 11 seconds.
He edged ahead of a tightly packed bunch, with David Dekker of Arkea-Samsic placing second and Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Kaden Groves third.
Britain’s Mark Cavendish was unable to finish after a heavy crash.
The Astana Qazaqstan sprinter was one of several riders to go down with about three kilometres remaining of the 202km route from Teramo, but his team later said he was “OK”.
Race leader Remco Evenepoel - who won stage one’s individual time trial - was safely led across the finish line by his Soudal-QuickStep team-mates to keep hold of the maglia rosa jersey for stage three.
He holds a 22-second lead over Italy’s Filippo Ganna.
Groupama-FDJ’s Jake Stewart was the highest-placed Briton in ninth. Ineos Grenadiers’ Geraint Thomas also crossed safely but his team-mate Tao Geoghegan Hart slipped down the general classification after losing 19 seconds.
Milan, 22, is an Olympic and world team pursuit champion on the track and was competing in his first Grand Tour road stage.
“It’s something incredible,” he said. “Yesterday I tested my legs before today, I wanted to go for the sprint.
“My team-mates positioned me to perfection. This is my first win at the Giro, I’m lost for words.
“Yesterday I did a nice time trial, I was quite happy, I was pushing good but I could never imagine that today a victory was coming.”