Mark Cavendish narrowly missed out on victory in the second stage of the Giro D'Italia, beaten into second place by Alessandro Petacchi.
Brit retains leader's Pink Jersey
Britain's Mark Cavendish narrowly missed out on victory in the second stage of the Giro D'Italia, beaten into second in a sprint finish by Italy's Alessandro Petacchi.
The LPR rider broke for the line fractionally earlier that Cavendish expected and managed to hold off the Isle of Man star by a bike's length.
The winning time for the 156-kilometre run from Jesolo to Trieste was three hours, 43 minutes and seven seconds.
Italy's Leonardo Scarselli of the ISD team had made a solo break nine kilometres from the finish but was caught by the peleton with a couple of kilometres to go.
The 35-year-old Petacchi - who missed last year's Giro through a doping suspension - said: "I was on Cavendish's wheel. I had been asking myself for several days how to beat him. We'd never previously gone head to head in a sprint. He's a great champion".
The stage win was Petacchi's 25th in the Giro, although the official tally stands at 20 with the remainder removed from the records due to his doping ban.
Columbia-Highroad rider Cavendish won the leader's Pink Jersey after Saturday's first stage when his Team Columbia won the team time trial on Venice's Lido.
He retains the lead heading into Monday's 198-kilometre third stage from Grado to Valdobbiadene by 14 seconds from teammate Mark Renshaw.
Cavendish won two stages in last year's Giro and four in the 2008 Tour de France.
Leading final positions after stage 2 (Jesolo - Trieste, 156km): 1 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) LPR Brakes - Farnese Vini 3hrs 43mins 07secs, 2 Mark Cavendish (Gbr) Team Columbia - Highroad, 3 Ben Swift (Gbr) Team Katusha, 4 Allan Davis (Aus) Quick Step, 5 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin - Slipstream, 6 Oscar Gatto (Ita) ISD, 7 Francesco Gavazzi (Ita) Lampre - N.G.C, 8 Davide Vigano (Ita) Fuji-Servetto, 9 Manuele Mori (Ita) Lampre - N.G.C, 10 Dries Devenyns (Bel) Quick Step, 11 Thomas Fothen (Ger) Team Milram, 12 Paolo Longo Borghini (Ita) Barloworld, 13 Jackson Rodriguez (Ven) Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli, 14 Steve Chainel (Fra) BBox Bouygues Telecom, 15 Mauricio Ardila (Col) Rabobank, 16 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Acqua & Sapone - Caffe Mokambo, 17 Philip Deignan (Irl) Cervelo Test Team, 18 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team Saxo Bank, 19 Thomas Rohregger (Aut) Team Milram, 20 Tadej Valjavec (Slo) AG2R La Mondiale all at same time
