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Clouds already hanging over Nibali after stormy day

By Martyn Herman ZEELAND, Netherlands (Reuters) - By the time Vincenzo Nibali reached the sanctuary of his team coach, it was a beautiful summer’s evening, but a stormy second stage had already left a cloud over his hopes of following up last year’s Tour de France victory. The Italian lost a chunk of time to Alberto Contador and Chris Froome, two of his big rivals to wear the yellow jersey in Paris on July 26, after a dramatic 166km sweep through the flatlands of southern Netherlands. Cross winds coming off the North Sea and torrential rain storms made a twitchy peloton break apart and with crashes, mechanical problems and attacks going on all day, Nibali, with fellow GC (general classification) contender Nairo Quintana from Colombia, found himself the wrong side of a split with about 50km remaining. Team Sky’s Froome, who finished in the group with stage winner Andre Greipel, now holds a one minute 21 second advantage over Nibali with Contador 1:09 ahead with only two stages gone.Swiss Fabian Cancellara holds the yellow jersey. It was a complete contrast to last year’s second stage when Nibali attacked Froome and Contador after a hard day in the hills of Yorkshire and powered to victory and the yellow jersey, which he held all the way to Paris. Nibali, who at one stage even loss contact with the chasing bunch after a puncture, eventually rejoined the peloton and rolled into the dramatic coastal finish at Zeeland one minute 28 seconds behind Froome. Team director Giuseppe Martineli said it had just been one of those unpredictable days when things do not go quite to plan. He refused to believe Nibali’s chances had been seriously undermined. “Last year everything was great, less so this year, but that’s cycling,” the Italian told reporters. “It’s a lot of time lost for today but it can change tomorrow or the day after.” With the first nine stages offering plenty of danger, Nibali will have opportunities to repair the damage long before the mountains. Froome, the 2013 champion who crashed out last year, sounded surprised to have built such a lead on Nibali but was not getting carried away. “It was chaos out there with the storm, the wind everything,” said the 30-year-old who is in 10th spot, 12 seconds better than Spaniard Contador. “One second Nibali was next to me and the next I couldn’t believe it when I heard he was distanced. It’s the nature of racing in Holland.” (Editing by Gene Cherry)