TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) Elia Viviani has won the second stage of the Giro d’Italia.
The Italian finished the 167-kilometer (104-mile) leg down the Mediterranean coast from Haifa to Tel Aviv in under four hours on Saturday to edge out a bunch sprint finish.
Thanks to a time bonus, Australian rider Rohan Dennis took a one-second lead over defending champion Tom Dumoulin to capture the pink jersey. Dumoulin won the opening day time trial in Jerusalem on Friday.
Thousands of Israelis lined the coastal coast to see the first Grand Tour to be held outside Europe.
Stage 3 will follow a lengthy 229-kilometer (143-mile) route on Sunday from Beersheba in the Negev desert down to Israel’s southern tip of Eilat along the Red Sea.
The Giro ends in Rome on May 27.