The opening time trial determined the first gaps of the 2018 Giro d’Italia. Tom Dumoulin took the opportunity to open a sensible advantage over his competitors since the very first day of racing. Everybody knew the Dutchman was capable of taking the win on stage 1 and the forecast have acutally occurred. Team Sunweb’s leader now sits two seconds ahead of Rohan Dennis and 20 seconds of Simon Yates, who is more skilled on three weeks racing than the Aussie.
Thibaud Pinot performed in line with the expectation whereas Chris Froome might have suffered because of the scratches caused by the crash that occurred this morning and lost 40 seconds. Fabio Aru and Miguel Angel Lopez finished respectively 50 and 56 seconds behind the stage winner. By the way some GC contenders crossed the finish line more than a minute down on Dumoulin. This is Michael Woods, Louis Meintjes, Ben Hermans and Giulio Ciccone to name a few.
Giro d’Italia 2018 GC Favourites Classification
1 DUMOULIN Tom TEAM SUNWEB 12’ 02”
2 DENNIS Rohan BMC RACING TEAM 0’ 02”
7 YATES Simon Philip MITCHELTON – SCOTT 0’ 20”
10 POZZOVIVO Domenico BAHRAIN – MERIDA 0’ 27”
11 BETANCUR Carlos MOVISTAR TEAM 0’ 28”
14 GROSSSCHARTNER Felix BORA – HANSGROHE 0’ 31”
15 WELLENS Tim LOTTO SOUDAL 0’ 32”
16 PINOT Thibaut GROUPAMA – FDJ 0’ 33”
21 FROOME Chris TEAM SKY 0’ 37”
25 POELS Wout TEAM SKY 0’ 40”
26 FORMOLO Davide BORA – HANSGROHE 0’ 40”
40 CHAVES RUBIO Jhoan Esteban MITCHELTON – SCOTT 0’ 46”
43 BENNETT George TEAM LOTTO NL – JUMBO 0’ 49”
45 O’CONNOR Ben TEAM DIMENSION DATA 0’ 49”
47 ARU Fabio UAE TEAM EMIRATES 0’ 50”
61 LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel ASTANA PRO TEAM 0’ 56”
76 WOODS Michael TEAM EF EDUCATION FIRST 01’ 02”
94 MEINTJES Louis TEAM DIMENSION DATA 01’ 08”
98 GESINK Robert TEAM LOTTO NL – JUMBO 01’ 09”
108 HERMANS Ben ISRAEL CYCLING ACADEMY 01’ 12”
113 BRAMBILLA Gianluca TREK – SEGAFREDO 01’ 13”
116 ROCHE Nicolas BMC RACING TEAM 01’ 14”
124 TORRES AGUDELO Rodolfo Andre ANDRONI GIOCATTOLI – SIDERMEC 01’ 18”
129 CICCONE Giulio BARDIANI CSF 01’ 20”