Bruno Armirail takes pink jersey as Nico Denz wins second stage of Giro

Germany's Nico Denz won today's stage of the Giro d'Italia with another powerful sprint to the finish line of the rain-soaked 193-kilometre ride from Sierre to Cassano Magnago, while France's Bruno Armirail seized the leader's maglia rosa jersey.

Corkman Eddie Dunbar dropped one place to eighth in the general classification as Armirail stole a march on the peloton to bump Geraint Thomas down to second place,

Dunbar's solid performance, despite a late puncture and change of bike kept him safely in the top 10 with seven stages left.

Ben Healy dropped five places in GC to 59th overall, over 70 minutes behind the new leader.

Bora-Hansgrohe's Denz launched his sprint with Israel-PremierTech's Gee and Alberto Bettiol in hot pursuit and narrowly claimed his second stage victory after winning stage 12 this week.

Gee was second by half a wheel length, his third runners-up finish in this year's Giro, and Bettiol was third.

"I felt super good today and so I managed to get again into the breakaway," Denz said.

"I felt very good and when Bettiol launched his sprint I followed him and then I went full gas until the line. It was a very tough day but it ended well for me."

A 27-man breakaway took shape after a fast start, featuring former stage winners Fernando Gaviria, Stefano Oldani, Denz, Bettiol, Davide Bais and Simon Clarke.

Cycling through incessant rain which required riders to wear wet weather jackets to protect them from the foul weather which has continued to disrupt this year's race, the breakaway opened up a sizeable gap of over 10 minutes.

Oldani, Laurenz Rex and Davide Ballerini attacked with just over 50km left and were quickly joined by Toms Skujins.

The quartet worked together excellently to pull away from their pursuers, but ran