Author: Reuters

• 21-year-old wins stage two by 1sec for Ineos Grenadiers
• Second is enough for Primoz Roglic to take overall lead

Josh Tarling of Ineos Grenadiers set a time-trial pace even the race favourite, Primoz Roglic, could not match to win stage two of the Giro d’Italia by one second in Albania.

Tarling had a nervous wait before his first Grand Tour stage victory was confirmed as the 21-year-old Welshman watched Roglic come so close, but the Slovene had to settle for second place with the consolation of taking over the leader’s pink jersey for Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe.

• Danish rider holds off Van Aert in bunch sprint to line
• Mikel Landa abandons race after crash late in stage

Denmark’s former world champion Mads Pedersen edged out Wout van Aert in a bunch sprint to win the opening stage of the Giro d’Italia in Tirana, but Mikel Landa was forced to abandon the race after a crash five kilometres from the finish.

Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) was positioned perfectly by his teammates for the climax in the Albanian capital and held off Belgium’s Van Aert to become the first rider this year – and the first Dane – to wear the overall leader’s pink jersey. Venezuela’s Orluis Aular (Movistar) was third across the line.

• Pogacar leaves rivals behind with uphill attack
• Le Court wins four-way sprint in women’s race

Tadej Pogacar launched one of his trademark uphill attacks to win the Liège–Bastogne–Liège classic race for the third time on Sunday. The defending champion made his move about 35km (22 miles) from the end of the undulating 252km (156-mile) trek to open up a gap of 10sec at the top, and then kept increasing it all the way to the line.

It was his third victory overall at the spring classic race, which is also one of the five “monuments” in one-day cycling along with Paris-Roubaix on the cobbles, the Tour of Lombardy, Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders. Pogacar now has nine “monument” victories.

• World champion surges clear on race's brutal final climb
• Kévin Vauquelin second, with Tom Pidcock coming third

Tadej Pogacar bounced back in style after his Paris-Roubaix and Amstel Gold Race heartbreaks as he claimed a second Flèche Wallonne title with an early attack in the finale on Wednesday.

The world champion attacked when 400 metres from the finish on the brutally steep Mur de Huy and never looked back, prevailing over France’s Kévin Vauquelin and third-placed Tom Pidcock of Britain.