Sardegna: Sagan By a Mile!

First win of the season for young superstar. Peter Sagan may as well have been time trialing the final 200 meters today, as nobody was even close to him in the finishing sprint of the first stage of the Giro di Sardegna.

Sagan absolutely opened up after a nice leadout from Daniel Oss and his Liquigas team, and had plenty of time to look back and celebrate while Alessandro Ballan tried to catch up. Liquigas was in such good position that Oss actually was able to hang on to 3rd place despite having to sprint a long distance.

Of course, not all of the sprinters were at the front. Several of them (including Alessandro Petacchi and Robbie McEwen) were unable to stay with the peloton over the last small climb and lost about 2 minutes.

This was supposed to be an all-together finish, but several late attacks including a big one by Danilo Di Luca shattered the backside of the peloton and it began hemorrhaging riders on the final hill.
Di Luca wasn't able to get very far, however, as Vincenzo Nibali was all over him and brought him back to the peloton to set up his teammates Sagan and Oss.

It's also worth noting that before these late attacks even began that there was a two man breakaway of Arkimedes Arguelyes and Will Routley. The two man team built up a lead of almost 8 minutes, before the sprinter teams in the peloton were able to bring them both back.

Today's stage probably won't have much of an effect on the overall outcome, as many of the main contenders like Nibali, Cunego, and Ballan finished safely in the peloton. Things get a little more intense for the rest of the week, however.

Stage Results/General Classification

1. Peter Sagan

2. Alessandro Ballan

3. Daniel Oss

4. Oscar Gatto

5. Daniele Pietropolli

9. Vincenzo Nibali

10. Eros Capecchi

13. Geraint Thomas

14. Danilo Di Luca

18. Ben Hermans

19. Damiano Cunego

40. Brent Bookwalter -15

66. Ben Swift -1:02

71. Jacopo Guarnieri -1:57

72. Robbie McEwen -2:01

96. Alessandro Petacchi -2:49