Norway's Kasper Haugland of Decathlon CMA CGM Development Team takes a look back, on his way to winning stage 1, as a crash takes place among the sprinters in the group bearing down on the lone leader (Photo: Massimo Paolone)
The four Irish riders in Next Gen Giro d'Italia (2.2U) have emerged from the chaos of stage 1 with their chances intact, and having avoided the crashes that marred the final of the race.
Seth Dunwoody (Bahrain Victorious Development), David Gaffney (Hagens Berman Jayco), Liam O'Brien (Lidl Trek Future Racing) and Adam Rafferty (Hagens Berman Jayco) all finished in the bunch.
A three-man breakaway group at one point managed to gain nine minutes as many of the bigger teams - with the best stage win and general classification hopes - looked at each other to chase.
All the while, the three breakaway men took to their task and built a massive gap on the 168km stage from Reggio Calabria to Vibo Valentia.
Ireland's David Gaffney, on the right in purple kit, duing the opening stage of Giro d'Italia Next Gen (Photo: Fabio Ferrari)
In that group were Norway's Kasper Haugland (Decathlon CMA CGM Development Team) and Håkon Eiksund Øksnes (Team Drali-Repsol) and Luca Fraticelli of the Italian national team.
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With about 60km to go, and having already been up the road in the three-man group for 70km, Decathlon's Haugland dropped his two breakaway companions and pressed on alone.
Though he still had six minutes in hand on the peloton, with 22km remaining, he still had about half the long, but gentle, Mileto climb to go and then a 2.7km ascent, at a steep 5.4 per cent, to tackle.
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Haugland began to struggle up front, as the bigger teams finally applied full pressure in a bid to bring him back, and with 1km to go, his lead was down to less than 40 seconds.
However, he just about hung on, crossing the line celebrating his win with his two hands in the air just one second ahead of the peloton sprinting for 2nd place.
Riccardo Fabbro (UC Trevigiani-Energiapura Marchiol) won the sprint for 2nd, with Davide Donati (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe Rookies) 3rd.
Best placed of the Irish was Seth Dunwoody (Bahrain Victorious Development) in 12th, though the good news for him was that he avoided a crash towards the front of the bunch in the sprint.
The three other Irish riders all came through the opening stage incident-free. David Gaffney (Hagens Berman Jayco) was 40th, Liam O'Brien (Lidl Trek Future Racing) was 85th and Adam Rafferty (Hagens Berman Jayco) was 95th.
The race continues tomorrow with a 154km stage from Tropea to Crotone, which looks like one for the sprinters like Dunwoody.
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