McEwen masters stage two

Though Petacchi's Milram team controlled the peloton for much of the rainy 197 kilometre journey from Mons to Charleroi Marcinelle, it was McEwen who imposed himself in the final metres, snatching victory in a late outside burst.

"Petacchi saw I was on his wheel and so hesitated in the final 200 metres," McEwen told reporters.

"Pollack launched the sprint. I was worried about being blocked in and so jumped on his wheel. We went past Petacchi and then I squeezed past Pollack close to the barriers and opened up my sprint," McEwen continued.

The Australian contributed his win partly to his childhood bike riding skills.

"I won because of my boyhood BMX riding and my 11 years of experience as a professional.

"I make the right decision in eight out of 10 sprints like this one. Of course you still need good legs to win," the 33-year-old added.

The win was McEwen's ninth victory at the Giro D'Italia, as the Davitamon leader won three stages at last year's race, including stage two.

The start of the Giro has now mirrored last week's Tour de Romandie, in which McEwen won stage one in a wet bunch sprint after team Discovery Channel's Savoldelli claimed victory in the opening time-trial.

"I showed I'd recovered by winning a stage in Romandie last week and this win puts me back on right track for the rest of the season," said McEwen.

A group of four rode in the lead for much of the day, but were all ultimately drawn into the peloton in the final 20 kilometres.

Still, the group of Arnaud Labbe (Bouygues telecom), Mickael Delage (Française des Jeux), Missaglia (Selle Italia) and Albizuri Aronsoro (Euskaltel) led the race through the one Cat. 3 climb, as Labbe took the three mountain points to move to the front of the green jersey race with Savoldelli.

Once the peloton swallowed the four leaders, it was left to the top sprinters to get in the best position for the downhill race to Charleroi Marcinelle, where 50 years ago in August more than 136 Italians were killed in a terrible coal mining fire which claimed the lives of 262 people.

Belgium plays host to the opening four stages of the Tour of Italy, which moves to Piacenza on Wednesday.