Ecuador’s Jhonatan Narváez won a sprint finish to claim victory for Ineos Grenadiers on stage one of the Giro d’Italia. Starting at Venaria Reale, the opening 136km stage featured a category two climb on the Colle della Maddalena before ending in Turin.
There was an early breakaway of six riders, who opened up lead of around two-and-a-half minutes on the main peloton, which included the main general classification contenders.
Lilian Calmejane riding for Intermarche-Wanty and Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier with Lidl-Trek eventually went clear heading towards the Colle della Maddalena, as Mikkel Bjerg of UAE Emirates took up the chase on the peloton.
Calmejane went for a solo push going into the final 10km but was eventually reeled in before Nicola Conci moved off the front. Bjerg’s esteemed teammate Tadej Pogacar attacked from the head of the peloton on the Bivio di San Vito hill, with Narváez and Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) giving chase down towards the finish.
Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-hansgrohe) made a long sprint for the line, but Narváez and Pogacar responded before the Ecuador rider timed his move to perfection over the last 200m to take the first Maglia Rosa.
Schachmann was three seconds behind, with Pogacar third. British rider Geraint Thomas placed 11th in the main peloton, which was 20 seconds back, as Thymen Arensman (Ineos) and Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich PostNL) lost significant time.
Stage two is another hilly course over 161km from San Francesco al Campo to Santuario di Oropa.