Team Sky's World champion Mark Cavendish won the second stage of the weeklong Tirreno-Adriatico race in a sprint finish Thursday, while Australian Matthew Goss held on to the overall lead.

Cavendish was in fifth position just a few hundred meters from the finish but then surged in front to grab his fourth victory of a season he hopes to cap with Olympic gold on home soil in London in July.

The Isle of Man rider clocked 6 hours, 32 minutes, 32 seconds over the mostly flat 230-kilometer (142.9-mile) leg from San Vincenzo to Indicatore in Tuscany. Three-time world champion Oscar Freire of Spain and Team Katusha crossed second and Team Garmin-Barracuda's American sprinter Tyler Farrar was third, both with the same time as Cavendish.

Several riders were involved in a crash in the final kilometers, with Australian rider Michael Matthews of the Rabobank squad reportedly taken to the hospital for medical examination.

Two Italian cyclists, Stefano Pirazzi of Colnago and Diego Caccia of Farnese, broke away shortly after the start of the stage, at one point holding a lead of 7 minutes, 44 seconds. But Cavendish's Sky team and Goss's GreenEdge squad reeled them in with about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) to go.

Goss took the overall lead when Team GreenEdge won the opening team time trial yesterday.

Tomorrow's stage 3 crosses into Umbria with a 178-kilometer (110.6-mile) leg from Indicatore to Terni, featuring a short climb before the finish.

The race ends Tuesday with a 9.3-kilometer (5.78-mile) individual time trial in San Benedetto del Tronto, on the Adriatic coast.

Watch video highlights from all stages of the 2012 Tirreno-Adriatico in our video section.