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Remco Evenepoel underlined his status as a favourite for the Giro d’Italia by winning the opening time trial on stage one.
The Soudal-Quick Step rider took the leader’s maglia rosa jersey with a time of 21 minutes 18 seconds, 22 seconds quicker than Filippo Ganna.
Primoz Roglic, seen as Belgian Evenepoel’s main challenger for overall victory, was 43 seconds back in sixth.
“It’s the best result we can get for a first day,” said Evenepoel.
Speaking to Eurosport, he added: “Super happy. We wanted to go as fast as possible and I think we went fast enough today.
“I felt from the start that I had a good rhythm, always the same gear and the same cadence. I’m just super happy with what I can do.”
Britain’s Ineos Grenadiers duo Tao Geoghegan Hart and Geraint Thomas were fourth and ninth respectively.
Geoghegan Hart – who won the Giro in 2020 – was the first rider to finish inside 22 minutes but quickly saw his lead disappear as UAE Team Emirates’ Joao Almeida surpassed his time, eventually finishing third.
It marked the first maglia rosa of road race world champion Evenepoel’s career, after what was the longest opening individual time trial – 19.6km from Fossacesia Marina to Ortona – in Giro history.
The 23-year-old comes into the Grand Tour race in blistering form, having won a second successive Liege-Bastogne-Liege title two weeks ago.
Jumbo-Visma’s Roglic, of Slovenia, is chasing a fourth Grand Tour victory of his career and has won both stage races – Tirreno-Adriatico and the Volta a Catalunya – he has started this season.
Sunday’s stage two covers 201km from Teramo to San Salvo.
Stage one results (time trial)
1. Remco Evenepoel (Bel/Soudal-Quick Step) 21mins 18secs
2. Filippo Ganna (Ita/Ineos Grenadiers) +22secs
3. Joao Almeida (Por/UAE Team Emirates) +29secs
4. Tao Geoghegan Hart (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +40secs
5. Stefan Kung (Sui/Groupama-FDJ) +43secs
6. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Jumbo-Visma) same time
7. Jay Vine (Aus/UAE Team Emirates) +46secs
8. Brandon McNulty (US/UAE Team Emirates) +48secs
9. Geraint Thomas (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +55secs
10. Aleksandr Vlasov (Neutral/Bora-Hansgrohe) same time
