Giro d'Italia: Marcel Kittel wins stage two as Tom Dumoulin keeps lead

Marcel Kittel blew all of his rivals away in Nijmegen

Marcel Kittel underlined his status as the best sprinter in the world with a dominant victory on stage two of the Giro d'Italia as Tom Dumoulin retained the overall lead.

Kittel (Etixx - Quick-Step) claimed his ninth win of the season by beating Arnaud Demare (FDJ.fr) and Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) into a distant second and third respectively with a supreme display of power in Nijmegen.

Ten bonus seconds also lifted the 27-year-old German to third place in the general classification, one second behind race leader Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin), who finished the day safely in the peloton.

Tom Dumoulin retained the race leader's pink jersey

Kittel now has the opportunity to take the pink jersey from Dumoulin on Sunday's third stage from Nijmegen to Arnhem, which is expected to end in a sprint and has more bonus seconds available.

His triumph on Saturday also continued his record of having won all three Giro road stages he has started in his career.

Kittel can take the race lead on Sunday's third stage

Kittel told Eurosport: "I am very happy with that first win. From now on we can be relieved and look forward to the next days.

"I am not a GC [general classification] rider, so it [the pink jersey] is not my main priority, but, of course, I gave everything in the time trial and I hoped for a win today to have the option tomorrow, and it is good to be in that situation.

Stage two took the riders from Arnhem to Nijmegen in the Netherlands

"But tomorrow we will just concentrate on the sprint, because when that works out, everything else also comes together."

All of the main contenders for overall victory also finished safely in the peloton, meaning Dumoulin remains 19 seconds ahead of Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), 24 seconds up on Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and 40 seconds better off than Mikel Landa (Team Sky).

Sunday's third stage will be the Giro's final day in the Netherlands before returning to Italy on Monday ahead of the fourth stage on Tuesday.

Stage two result

1 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Etixx - Quick-Step, 4:38:31

2 Arnaud Demare (Fra) FDJ.fr, same time

3 Sacha Modolo (Ita) Lampre-Merida, st

4 Moreno Hofland (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, st

5 Nicola Ruffoni (Ita) Bardiani-CSF, st

6 Alexander Porsev (Rus) Katusha, st

7 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge, st

8 Kristian Sbaragli (Ita) Dimension Data, st

9 Andrey Amador (Cos) Movistar, st

10 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo, st

General classification

1 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Giant-Alpecin, 4:49:34

2 Primoz Roglic (Slo) LottoNL-Jumbo, same time

3 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Etixx - Quick-Step, +1sec

4 Andrey Amador (Cos) Movistar, +6sec

5 Tobias Ludvigsson (Swe) Giant-Alpecin, +8

6 Moreno Moser (Ita) Cannondale, +12

7 Bob Jungels (Lux) Etixx - Quick-Step, +13

8 Matthias Brandle (Aut) IAM Cycling, +14

9 Silvan Dillier (Sui) BMC Racing, +16

10 Roger Kluge (Ger) IAM Cycling, st