2019 Giro d'Italia Stage 1 Results & Recap
Stage 1 of the 2019 Giro d'Italia is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
An upside-down time trial, with all favourites starting early, kicks of the 2019 Giro d'Italia in Bologna. Pre-race favourite Primož Roglic (TJV) does the job in front of challenger Simon Yates (MTS) and home favourite Vincenzo Nibali (TBM).
An explosive first half hour
For the second time, the Giro d'Italia has its Grande Partenza in the city of Bologna. An 8 kilometre time trial finishing on a steep climb was sure to bring in the first time differences between the contenders for this year's overall classification. As if the climb to the San Luca sanctuary wasn’t spectacular enough, the weather report brought an extra dimension to the race: with rumours of rain in the evening, most favourites opted to start early, with the exception of Simon Yates.
Tom Dumoulin (SUN), former Giro winner, world champion and last year’s second place finisher was the first to go off the ramp. His time was set to be a beacon for the other contenders to chase, but the chasers came soon after. Surprisingly, the first to break Dumoulin’s time was climber Miguel Angel Lopez (AST), less than a second of difference but the fastest time so far nevertheless. Italian GC contender Vincenzo Nibali holds the record on this climb, albeit from a different approach. He showed the home crowd how to do it, and finished five seconds ahead of the Lopez and Dumoulin. However, none of the early starters could match pre-race favourite Roglic, who put another 23 seconds into Nibali.
Intermezzo – A race within the race
What followed was two more hours of riders starting their grand tour before another GC candidate would climb his bike. In the meantime, there were a few small races within the race – most prominently the KOM jersey which would fall into the lap of the rider putting in the fastest time on the final climb. Several riders let the flat start of the course be to focus on this climb, but only Gulio Ciccone was strong enough to climb faster than the day’s winner, and took a head start in the mountain qualification. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the time limit proved challenging for many riders, including Hiroki Nishimura (NIP), who will have to leave the race on the first day, unless the jury makes an exception.
The final verdict
Among the last five riders to start was Simon Yates, and he proved to come closest to taking Roglic’ throne. Although he started the climb with quite a hefty amount of time to make up, he climbed fast – very fast. Halfway up, it seemed the Britton might challenge for the day. Ultimately, he paid for his efforts before he reached the top, having increased his deficit by a second.
The biggest victims of the day must have been Mikel Landa (MOV) and Ilnur Zakarin (TKA), 1’07” and 1’20” down on Roglic. For the others, although the day might have been disappointing in itself, the battle for GC is still wide open! \n
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