It had been ten years since the Giro d'Italia had started with a road stage. The last time, before an uninterrupted series of timed-prologues, was in 2003 in Lecce with Alessandro Petacchi burning Mario Cipollini in the rainbow jersey. An opportunity that the strongest sprinter currently active, Mark Cavendish, seized upon by winning his eleventh career stage at the Giro. The first pink jersey of the Giro belongs to him. He had already worn it in 2009, crossing the finish line first at the end of the Venice team time trial won by his team at the time, the Columbia-High Road. But that was a sprint between teammates, today's one on the stage of the Naples waterfront was yet another masterpiece of "Cannonball" with a breathtaking comeback among a hand-picked group of sprinters who skilfully survived a general fall three hundred meters from the finish line. Unleashing all his deadly power, Cavendish ruled Elia Viviani and the Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni in a breath. Goss was only sixth. Out of the game Paolini and the German Degenkolb involved in the tumble that caused a trickle finish. Wiggins, Nibali, Evans and Hesjedal, just to mention the big names of the Giro, took great care not to participate in the final tussle, finishing the race without damage. As per the regulation, the delays due to the crash in view of the finish line have been neutralised.
Forfeiting the 20 seconds bonus that this year the Giro organizers have decided to reintroduce in all the road stages, even in the mountain stages, which were excluded last year, Cavendish with his Omega Pharma will appear tomorrow at the team time trial of Ischia of 17,4 km with a few more chances to maintain the lead even if Bradley Wiggins' Team Sky and Ryder Hesjedal's Garmin start with the favors of the forecast. Bonuses will be a factor of no less importance in the history of this Giro which has already been assigned two masters on paper: Wiggins and his main challenger, Nibali. But the Englishman must demonstrate on the big mountains that he is always brilliant, as he wasn't on the Tour even though he won last year. Nibali, despite arriving on the podium of the Grande Boucle, showed serious limitations in giving depth and continuity to his shots in the mountains, as if he suffered the effort especially in the last week of the Tour. This is why even the bonus game can be decisive in a A lap which, like the more recent ones, could be solved on the edge of seconds. The proof is that if they had also been there in the mountain stages, with the 20 seconds accumulated by winning the stages with uphill finishes, last year's Giro would have been won not by Hesjedal but by Purito Rodriguez.
