Good morning and welcome to live coverage of stage two of the Giro d'Italia, a 244km largely pizza-flat ride from Alba to Parma.

Thanks for joining us today - and be sure to return for tomorrow's live coverage, which starts at 11:55.

Yes, Petacchi is now on the podium so it looks official: stage two to the veteran Italian.

Regardless of the result - and it looks like it will stand - Cavendish should be the new pink jersey thanks to the bonus seconds available at the finish.

Even worse news for Garmin: that wasn't even Farrar for fourth, it was Androni Giocattoli's Roberto Ferrari. Farrar took seventh, behind Appollino.

Farrar takes fourth and Bozic fifth. Big disappointment for Garmin-Cervelo, who did most of the chasing and lead-out.

Colnago's Manuel Belletti takes third, but the stewards may be called on to make a decision for first place. Cav is clearly not happy.

Cavendish takes second - just - but is shaking his arms and head. He's angry about the line Petacchi took - and replays show the Lampre man twice cutting in front of his rival.

All a bit nervous... Petacchi goes first... Cav follows him but it's too late - victory to the Italian!

Garmin's David Millar doing the dog work through the last of the bends...

Napolitano is there too, just ahead of Cavendish.

Cav, Farrar and Petacchi are all poised...

A succession of roundabouts is stringing out the peloton quite considerably. Vacansoleil are on the front preparing the road for their man Bozic.

Vorganov has a cut elbow and some torn shorts. For the speed he was going, it should have been worse...

Lampre are on the front as well now. This will be a bit sprint.

It's all over, the leaders are caught and now it's up to the teams of the sprinters to do their thing.

CRASH: Katusha's Eduard Vorganov isn't paying attention and clips a wheel and hits the deck at top speed. Nasty. So, the leaders are down to six and have just seven seconds.

Just 11 seconds now. A bold effort, but it never looked likely to last. The scene is set for Cav, Farrar and Petacchi...

The gap is still 18 seconds. On the front of the peloton it's all Garmin-Cervelo, working for their man Tyler Farrar.

No, just seven. Lordy. Oh well, they are: Jan Bakelants, Leonardo Giordani, Michal Golas, Jerome Pineau, Eduard Vorganov, Ruggero Marzoli and Daniele Righi.

In fact, there are eight riders, but very little unity. HTC, Sky and Garmin-Cervelo are on the frontm of a strung out peloton.