Victory for Mathieu van der Poel during the first stage of the Giro! He grabs the pink jersey. Caleb Ewan crashed in the sprint. Peio Bilbao and Richard Carapaz nibble a few seconds in the general classification.
It was therefore the first stage of the 105th Tour of Italy this Friday with a start from Hungary. She took the peloton from Budapest to Visegrad for a 195 kilometer stage.
At the end of a race without any real difficulty, the peloton had an appointment with an ascent of 5.6 kilometers at 4.2% with passages at 8% to finish the stage. Something to give ideas of the best punchers, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix), en tete.
From the official departure, Filippo Tagliani et Mattia Bais, two Italians from the Drone Hopper – Androni Giocattoli team, come out of the peloton and are absolutely not followed. The two riders are not scary and widen the gap very quickly. Their lead even ends up exceeding the ten-minute mark.
In the end, van der Poel’s team took the lead in the hunt, then helped by the Intermarché – Wanty – Gobert Matériaux team from Biniam Girmay before EF Education-EasyPost comes to lend them a hand to Magnus Cort Nielsen. Little by little, other teams come to the fore like Lotto-Soudal for its sprinter Caleb Ewan or Team DSM, who came to Italy with Romain Bardet as leader. At the same time, the gap is gradually shrinking, without it being able to worry the candidates for victory.
Finally, the duo of fugitives was caught fourteen kilometers from the finish, thus leaving the field completely clear to the teams of the favorites of the day and the various leaders. In the last kilometers, two crashes occur but do not concern any favorite.
2 kilometers from the goal, Lennard Kvne (BORA – hansgrohe) is the first to try his luck but does not manage to create a gap of more than ten seconds on the peloton. The peloton is coming back, everything will be decided in a sprint.
In the final sprint, van der Poel proved to be the strongest by winning ahead of Girmay! Behind the Eritrean, Ewan suffered a fall when he would probably have finished in third place. If his condition is worrying, he was still able to cross the finish line. Surprising third, Peio Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) took the opportunity to take four bonus seconds. Regarding the favorites, only Wilco Kelderman (BORA – hansgrohe) et Richard Carapaz (INEOS Grenadiers) also finished in the same time as the winner while other favorites have already lost four seconds.
This Saturday, the peloton will face a 9.2 kilometer individual time trial in Budapest. The main favorites for victory, Carapaz, Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco), João Almeida (UAE Emirates Team) Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Victorious) will already have to do battle.