XDS-Astana‘s Uruguayan Thomas Silva sprung a surprise to claim victory in stage two of the 2026 Giro d’Italia, winning a reduced bunch sprint in Veliko Tarnovo after a Jonas Vingegaard-led attack was caught in the final kilometre.
24-year-old Silva launched the sprint in the final 200 metres and looked to be tying up, but held on to become the first rider from the South American country ever to win a stage in a Grand Tour. Tudor’s Florian Stork was second ahead of Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
How it happened
The second prong of a trident of Bulgarian stages to begin the 2026 Giro d’Italia saw the peloton venture into the eastern edge of the Balkan mountain range, with three third category climbs on the menu and a tricky uphill finish in Veliko Tarnovo.
The stage began as it did in the opener, with two riders from Italian ProTeams heading up the road. Overnight mountain classification leader Diego Sevilla attacked again, this time joined by his Polti-Visit Malta team-mate Mirco Maestri. The pair stretched their lead out beyond five minutes and Sevilla extended his lead over the first two climbs.
The breakaway was neutralised ahead of the final hill, a 4km climb that finished with less than ten kilometres left. On the approach, there was a large crash in the peloton which took down Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek) and Wilco Kelderman (Visma-Lease a Bike) among others. Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was one rider helped into the back of an ambulance with his race over. Yates would go on to lose more than ten minutes and drop out of contention for the pink jersey.
The peloton slowed, with around a third of the riders in the race either held up or on the ground. Shortly after, the race was neutralised with 20km to go given the severity of the crash and the number of medical vehicles available.
The race resumed with 18km to go with just a short distance to go to the Red Bull Kilometre, with six seconds on offer for any opportunists. Egan Bernal (Netcompany-Ineos) took full advantage and moved up the General Classification.
There were early attacks on the final climb, the Lyaskovets Monastery Pass, which had a maximum gradient of 14%. However, Davide Piganzoli kept things under control for Vingegaard with the peloton stretched out behind. Gee-West was losing time, as was pink jersey Magnier.
Vingegaard attacked with 600 metres of the climb to go with Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) in the wheel along with several others. The Dane attacked again at the top and was chased down by Giulio Pellizzarri (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto-Intermarché). Behind, the peloton had split into several groups as the two-time Tour de France winner was threatening to turn the stage into a General Classification battle.
The trio worked together on the descent with 9km left and took a 20-second lead over the chasing group containing other race favourites. They entered the finale together with the same gap as the road ramped up to 9% in places with stretches of cobblestones.
The chasers closed the gap going into the final kilometre, allowing Christen to attack over to the lead. Van Eetvelt made a dig but the quartet started to look at one another as the group behind closed in.
XDS-Astana led out the sprint with Thomas Silva stretching out for glory with 150 metres to go. The Uruguayan was able to hold off Stork and Ciccone to take an historic win.
