Guillermo Thomas Silva sprinted to his first Grand Tour stage win on Saturday, taking stage 2 of the 2026 Giro d’Italia into Veliko Tarnovo after a late Jonas Vingegaard-led move was shut down inside the final kilometre. The 221km run from Burgas had all the hallmarks of a controlled stage — until a mass crash 22km from the finish tore through the peloton and ended the races of Jay Vine and Marc Soler of UAE Team Emirates-XRG, leaving the squad critically depleted before the mountains have even arrived.
The Sprint — How Silva Won
Vingegaard had targeted the Lyaskovets Monastery Pass as his launchpad — a 3.9km climb at 6.6% — using Davide Piganzoli to set a savage tempo before accelerating with 1km to the summit. Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Intermarché) were the only riders able to match the Dane’s pace. The trio worked together across the top. It looked like it might stick.
It didn’t. Hesitation and tactical uncertainty among the three attackers allowed the chase group to organise, and they were hauled back just before the flamme rouge as the road flattened out for the run to the line.
From there, XDS Astana Team executed with precision. Christian Scaroni delivered a textbook lead-out for the 24-year-old Uruguayan, who launched his sprint with 200 metres to go and held off Florian Stork (Tudor Pro Cycling) and Egan Bernal (Netcompany Ineos) to win by four seconds. Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) finished in the same group at ten seconds.
“I’m delighted. This is only the second stage of my first Giro d’Italia, and I’m the winner. It was a bit unexpected. I’m speechless. I knew I came with a good shape, but I also knew that it’s very hard to win a stage of a Grand Tour.” — Guillermo Thomas Silva
The win is historic. Silva becomes the first Uruguayan rider to win a stage at a Grand Tour — and he now leads the maglia rosa standings by four seconds over Stork, with Bernal also four seconds down after collecting six bonus seconds during the stage.
The Crash — UAE Haemorrhage Riders
A treacherous left-hand bend 22km from the finish turned stage 2 into something far grimmer for UAE Team Emirates-XRG. Marc Soler lost his front wheel, sliding out and collecting Jay Vine and Adam Yates into the barriers. Dozens more riders were swept up in the domino effect — race officials temporarily neutralised the stage before releasing the peloton with 18km to go.
Vine was stretchered from the scene. He did not restart. Soler was confirmed as a withdrawal shortly after. Ådne Holter (Uno-X Mobility) abandoned in the same incident. Adam Yates remounted — caked in blood and mud — but his Giro is functionally over. He crossed the line 13 minutes and 46 seconds down on the stage winner.
“We have two riders, Jay Vine and Marc Soler, on the way to hospital. We just hope it’s nothing too bad. Nothing is clear about their conditions for the moment. We’re just waiting for information from the doctors.” — Mauro Gianetti, UAE Team Emirates-XRG CEO
The losses are severe. UAE had already entered the race without João Almeida and lost a domestique on stage 1. Two stages in, Vine and Soler are gone. Jan Christen remains their best-placed rider at sixth overall, but the domestique structure around him — and any realistic mountain ambitions for Yates — has been all but stripped away.
Vine’s 2026 had already been a stop-start affair: a Tour Down Under GC win in January, a fractured scaphoid from a kangaroo-caused crash, another crash at the Volta a Catalunya in March, and a long altitude block in Sierra Nevada before the Giro. His race ends here.
GC After Stage 2
Silva (XDS Astana Team) leads in pink. Stork sits second at four seconds, Bernal third at the same gap, with Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos) and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) both six seconds down. Vingegaard’s attack came to nothing in terms of time — but it signals he intends to race aggressively, which should concern every GC rival given the climbs still ahead.
What’s Next
Stage 3 on Sunday is the final Bulgarian day before the race transfers to Italy — another lumpy affair that could again favour punchy riders over the pure sprinters. Vingegaard will be looking for another opportunity to put time into his rivals. UAE, short-handed and carrying a wounded Yates, face a very different race from the one they planned.
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