Giro d'Abruzzo: Jan Christen wins stage 2 with solo attack, taking leader's jersey and first pro win

Jan Christen was a very well known talent and a big favourite to win stage 2 of the Giro d'Abruzzo. As expected, UAE Team Emirates attacked constantly with their numbers towards the end, and the Swiss rider took his first pro win.

The breakaway of the day was formed by Andrea Guerra, Alessandro Tonelli, Abram Stockman and Diego Bracalente. It was not a threatening group, whose gap was managed behind by the peloton relatively comfortably.

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Tonelli went solo with 26 kilometers to go in the base of the final sequence of two small ascents, but was caught shortly after as UAE Team Emirates pushed a very hard pace to decimate the peloton and be able to use their numbers.

In the final kilometers of the ascent Jan Christen and Pavel Sivakov attacked several times, but they faced responses mainly from Alexey Lutsenko but also Yannis Voisard and George Bennett, who attacked in the descent even putting UAE under pressure. However the number game favoured UAE, and after the group was brought back together Christen attacked until no-one would follow.

The decisive move happened with 5 kilometers to go. The 19-year old was a known danger, but as soon as he got a few seconds, it was too much for the group to chase back as his UAE teammates covered every single move behind. The Swissman rode solo to the finish line to take his first pro win and the leader's jersey.

Alexey Lutsenko sprinted to second place behind, with Thomas Pesenti closing out the podium in a surprise performance alongside the GC favourites.

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