Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin Fenix) has won the opening stage of the Giro d’Italia in an uphill sprint from a reduced sprint that saw Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) suffer a crash just before the line.
Van der Poel, who wore yellow at the Tour de France last year after winning stage 2, just held off Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) today, in what was the Dutch rider's debut appearance at the Giro.
Ewan was fading in the sprint but looked like he would hang on for 3rd. However, he rubbed his front wheel off the rear wheel of Girmay and took a very heavy fall.
Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) rode very well up the climb to finish in 6th place. He was among a group of eight riders who all finished on the same time as the winner and gained time on the rest of the field; the next group some four seconds down.
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Today's stage 1 - some 195km from Budapest to Visegrád - finished atop a final 5km climb that looked suited to a variety of riders, from sprinters to GC men. However, Van der Poel, given his ability to climb and sprint, was the clear favourite and very much lived up to that billing today.
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On the finishing climb, Lawrence Naesen (AG2R Citroën) was the first to light it up with an attack just after the road kicked up, though his move never looked decisive. As he was being caught, Lennard Kämna (Bora-hansgrohe) launched himself out of the remains of the peloton and passed Naesen.
While Kämna continued with his attack, Birmay's remaining team mates were on the front of the bunch trying to close the gap. And with 1km to go the attacking German rider was under control, paving the way for a group sprint.
More to come.
