May 9, 2005 — Australian sprinter Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto) has kicked off his tour season with a tremendous stage win and a fresh jersey for his collection, perfectly timing a pack sprint to win the second stage of the Giro, 182km from Catanzaro Lido to Santa Maria des Cedro, and take over the overall lead.

An early six-man break, consisting of Freddy Bichot (Francaise des Jeux), Philippe Schnyder (Colombia-Selle Italia), Roy Sentjens (Rabobank), Moreno Di Biase (Colombia-Selle Italia), Sven Krauss (Gerolsteiner) and Bram Schmitz (T-Mobile) built a lead of just over three minutes but was caught with just over 20K remaining, despite a last-ditch effort by Bichot. The pace over the last few kilometers was very high, with stretches at close to 60K in the CSC and the Fassa-led peloton.

But neither team would be rewarded with a sprint win, when McEwen latched onto Jaan Kirsipuu’s (Credit Agricole) wheel and outsprinted Petacchi while holding off Illes Balears’ Isaac Galvez. With the sprint victory, McEwen also took over the points and GC classifications and the pink jersey by 18 seconds over Paolo Bettini (Quickstep)

Results
1 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto 4.34.47
2 Isaac Galvez Lopez (Spa) Illes Balears
3 Robert Forster (Ger) Gerolsteiner
4 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Fassa Bortolo
5 Baden Cooke (Aus) Francaise Des Jeux
6 Francisco J. Ventoso Alberdi (Spa) Saunier Duval-Prodir
7 Stuart O’Grady (Aus) Cofidis-Le Credit Par Telephone
8 Steven De Jongh (Ned) Rabobank
9 Paride Grillo (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare
10 Uros Murn (Slo) Phonak Hearing Systems

GC after stage 2

1 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto 9.45.14
2 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Quick.Step 0.18
3 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 0.22
4 Isaac Galvez Lopez (Spa) Illes Balears 27
5 Paolo Savoldelli (Ita) Discovery Channel-Pro Cycling Team 0.30