Mark Cavendish stays in the leaders jersey after Matteo Pelucchi of IAM Cycling, won the second stage of the 49th Tirreno-Adriatico in Italy.
British Road Race champion Mark Cavendish was in the leader's blue jersey as the 174 riders set off across italy for the second stage for this UCI World Tour race, which was from San Vincenzo to Cascina.
This 166km stage started with Movistar's British rider Alex Dowsett being involved in a break with Daniel Teklehaymanot (MTN-Qhubeka), Marco Canola (Bardiani-CSF), David De La Cruz (NetApp-Endura) and Davide Malacarne (Europcar), which soon took a 5.25 lead before Cavendish's Omega Pharma Quick Step started to reel them in.
With the hilly terrain dealt with, the riders moved on to flatter roads for what was expected to be a bunch sprint finish, following two laps of a 20km finishing circuit around Cascina, the gap was just under four minutes with 80 kilometres to go.
Dowsett took the first sprint with 52kms remaining before the five started on the first of two finishing circuits with a lead of 3.30.
The second sprint came with 31kms to go and away shot Alex Dowsett to claim the three seconds in view of the Upezzingh's Tower at Cappona ahead of Malacarne and Canola who goes into the third stage wearing the King Of The Mountains jersey.
Dowsett went into time trial mode with a lead of 16 seconds over the chasing group and 2.50 over the peloton and was the virtual race leader as the race went over the Arno River.
The chasers were swept up with 16.2kms to go as Dowsett extended his lead to 44 seconds.
There was a crash with 13.2kms to go with Sky riders, Astana, Netapp and Lotto riders crashing with some going into a ditch.
Out went the orders and the Essex hailing Dowsett was hunted down with his lead down to 17 seconds going into the final ten kilometres.
Dowsett was caught after a brave effort with 6.2kms to go and the teams started to move their sprinters to the fore.
Alberto Contador was on the front as Mark Cavendish moved up behind the FDJ team and Garmin Sharp.
There was a crash involving Marcel Kittel of Giant Shimano with less than 2.5kms to go. Lampre took over on the front with Cavendish in fifteenth inside the final kilometre.
AG2R attacked but Lampre came back. Anraud Demare went against irishman Sam Bennett, Peter Sagan and Andrei Greipel but it was Matteo Pelucchi of IAM Cycling who won it in 3.56.12 at an average speed of 42.147km/h, ahead of Demare, André Greipel and Sam Bennett of Net App Endura, followed by Sagan, Appollonio, Fortin, Modolo, Hurel and Sbaragli.
Cavendish finished 17th and keeps his leader's jersey for another day.