Alessandro Petacchi edged Mark Cavendish to win the second stage of the Giro d'Italia in a mass sprint Sunday, while Lance Armstrong finished in the main pack and gained time on overall race favorite Ivan Basso. Cavendish retained the overall leader's pink jersey. Basso and Armstrong's Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer each finished 13 seconds behind the main pack, losing time when the group was split by a crash with five kilometers remaining. “That's the risk of the early stages in a big tour in a finale. I was lucky to be there with (Jose Luis Rubiera) and he kept me out of trouble,” Armstrong said. Petacchi, an Italian with the LPR Brakes team, covered the mostly flat 156-km route from Jesolo to the northeastern city of Trieste in 3 hours, 43 minutes, 7 seconds. It was the 20th Giro stage win of Petacchi's career. Cavendish and third-place finisher Ben Swift were given the same time, as was the chasing pack. Cavendish, the British standout of the Columbia squad that won the team time trial to open the Giro on Saturday, leads the overall standings by 14 seconds ahead of teammate Mark Renshaw. Armstrong crossed 42nd with the same time as Petacchi and moved up from 15th to 10th overall, 27 seconds behind Cavendish. “Not bad,” Armstrong said. “I felt good on the bike. My legs felt good. I felt good in the group.” Leipheimer dropped to 18th overall, 40 seconds behind Cavendish, and Basso fell to 45th, 1:07 back.
