The Giro d’Italia continued with the second stage from Haifa to Tel Aviv and it concluded with the predicted bunch sprint, although that barely told the full story of a surprisingly intriguing day. After missing out on the pink jersey in the opening time trial, BMC Racing had a plan to put Rohan Dennis into the race lead. They targeted the time bonus at an intermediate sprint and propelled the Australian over the line first to relieve Tom Dumoulin of pink. We hear from Dennis’s team-mate Nicolas Roche about how they did it. The Israel Cycling Academy team wanted to make an impression too and they nearly took the king of the mountains jersey but Guillaume Boivin fell just short. He tells us about his day in the break. The stage was won by Elia Viviani of Quick Step and we discuss the Italian’s season so far and why this was an important win for him. The Cycling Podcast is supported by Rapha and Science In Sport.