Van der Poel takes Girmay back, Ewan sucked empty hits himself against the canvas
As wonderfully unpredictable as the Giro can be, the story of this opening day was so well-trodden.
After barely 100 meters, Mattia Bais and Filippo Tagliani, two Drone Hopper teammates, were allowed to race with their noses in the wind for a day. The Italian duo colored the screen up to 13 kilometers from the finish.
Alpecin-Fenix, Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert and EF-EasyPost had done the dirty work, but the eruption was long in coming.
Lawrence Naesen and Lennard Kämna were the scouts on duty, but a sprint between the expected protagonists came in the last hectometers.
Biniam Girmay started strongly at the last corners, character head Mathieu van der Poel had to glue a hole and had to clean his toes to reassemble the Ertiree just before the white line.
Caleb Ewan was the third dog, but exhausted, tapped Girmay’s rear wheel and fell. He had himself to blame for the shift. A few minutes later he crossed the finish line with a torn shirt.
“It’s unbelievable. Our plan worked,” said team mate Dries De Bondt shortly after the finish.
“We never panicked. We didn’t want to be in the lead too early, but suddenly the sea opened up and at the foot of the climb we were all the way up front.”
“And then of course you know that he is very strong in the final. If he can choose his moment, it’s bingo. Mathieu had already indicated that he was really good. That gave the team confidence.”
Van der Poel defends his pink jersey in the time trial. “I can see him holding the first place until Italy.” On Tuesday the peloton will enter Sicily on their way to Mount Etna.
