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Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers) took victory on Stage 1 of the Giro d’Italia as Tadej Pogacar’s late attack left the race in smithereens behind him.
Pogacar stormed up the road on the day’s final climb after his UAE Team Emirates colleagues had already put some of the GC contenders – such as Romain Bardet – in trouble earlier in the day.
Stage 2 sees the riders take on another hilly stage from San Francesco al Campo to Santuario di Oropa.
Pogacar pushed his troops to the front in the final 30 kilometres on the category two Colle Maddalena climb and they splintered the peloton, dropping Bardet and Narvaez’s Ineos teammate Thymen Arensmen who had seemed a dark horse for the race.
However, only Rafal Majka survived alongside Pogacar for UAE Team Emirates meaning they lost control at the front, allowing a seven-man group including Bora-Hansgrohe’s Max Schachmann to get off the front ahead of the final steep uncategorised climb of the race.
Pogacar predictably went hell-for-leather on the final climb, just 1.4km but at an average gradient of 9.8%, and only Narvaez could hold on with Schachmann also catching up on the descent to form a three-way battle for victory in the final kilometre.
The heavy race favourite led out the sprint and opened up from distance with 200m to go, initially putting a gap into his rivals but they fought back with Narvaez overcoming Pogacar in the final metres and Schachmann taking second in a photo-finish.
After a torrid start to the season, it’s another sign that Ineos’ season is turning around and Geraint Thomas finished ten seconds behind in the main bunch, on a stage he always knew was better suited to Pogacar.
Dani Martinez, Cian Uijtdebroeks and Ben O’Connor all finished alongside Thomas in the dramatically reduced peloton for Bora, Visma-Lease a Bike and Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale to keep their GC bids intact, as did Julian Alaphilippe – the only rider apart from Narvaez to follow Pogacar’s initial attack.
Ahead of the stage, the big question had been whether Pogacar would make his victorious attack on the final climb or the much longer Colle Maddalena, but despite giving the day’s six-man breakaway a tight leash early on UAE Team Emirates waited until late to really put pressure on the peloton.
Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Lidl-Trek) and Lilian Calmejane (Intermarche-Wanty) were the only survivors of a six-man breakaway that had seen VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane’s Filippo Fiorelli shine at the early checkpoints.
The pair were both chasing the king of the mountains jersey on the decisive slopes of the Colle Maddalena with a 90-second advantage ahead of the peloton and Calmejane dropped his rival early to set up a time trial against UAE’s brutal pace behind to the top.
He summitted just seconds ahead of the main bunch but that was enough to earn him the maglia azzurra for stage 2, before Schachmann’s group broke away at the front when UAE finally eased the pace.
Bardet and Arensman had both carried promising form into the Giro and were major shocks to drop behind the peloton, eventually trailing home 0:57 and 2:17 behind Narvaez.
With the GC battle already blown wide open, Alex Baudin snatched a few seconds to earn the white jersey for best young rider, though he’ll have his work cut out to keep it tomorrow on an even tougher stage 2.
