Benvenuti in Italia per il Giro! The next days are flat, so the sprinters will try to get into a position to claim the maglia rosa early in the race while the GC riders will just save their energy for the big mountains in the second and third week. But we start the race with a 5 km prologue, so we’ll use the opportunity to have a first look at the sprinters and GC riders while Andersen takes his inevitable win today.
Szarka will lead Jura in the sprints and has an outside shot at some nice results after he already took a stage win last season.
Vesely is the sprint leader for Fastned.
Ovsyannikov tries his luck for Evonik after already doing the cobbles campaign in the last months.
Zingle for once gets a chance on his own for ELCO after being on leadout duty for most of the season so far.
But apart from a first show of the riders some of them are actually fighting for a stage result today. Milan is the first of the specialists but isn’t able to beat the best time set by Weemaes earlier.
Kemboi is not only among the favourites for today, he’s only among the best sprinters and thus a good bet to take the GC lead at least at some point in the next days. His time of 5’33 is enough for a clear lead at the moment.
Apart from leadout duties Larsen is only here for today. He does okay and is now in 2nd, 3’’ behind the lead.
Leung once again tries to beat his Danish archnemesis. He takes the lead for now in 5’31.
Kooij is not even maxed out (that’s probably why we missed to make a screenshot) but already leads his team in a GT. It’s probably the last time he won’t be high in the list of sprint favourites for the years to come. Kragh Andersen on the contrary is already in the autumn of his career and probably the last time here at the Giro as a lead sprinter.
Giannoutsos is the first of the big GC riders on the road (leaving out all riders with 79 MO or lower for today). He’s 13’’ behind for the moment.
Ganna is the last prologue specialist apart from the chosen one (for all distances up to 5 km), but at least he will also be one of the top favourites in the long ITT later in the race. For now he takes the lead in 5’30.
Aular is another rider fighting for the GC top 10. He loses 25’’ today.
And here he is, the fastest man on this distances in the last years. Andersen is fractions behind at the time split – and at the finish! Or will the jury change their mind in the end?
Olivier will want a top 10 in Rome, but today it’s all about reducing the losses. He’s 31’’ down in the end.
It’s the same for Wellens who loses 21’’ today.
Van Poppel will contest the sprints to make the wildcard for his team worthwhile.
Bonifazio will try to use his home tour to make his manager an even bigger fan of his.
Halvorsen is the sprint leader for the Mexican chickens.
Kanter is the sprint leader for Puma – or is he? He has Gross and Steimle as leadouts here who could both also take over the duties as lead sprinter.
Carthy was a surprise 2nd in last year’s edition. He probably won’t be able to repeat this, but a top 10 should be in the blocks in any case. He loses 48’’ today.
McNulty aims even higher, a top 5 should be realistic though he’ll have to improve on his Tirreno form. He has a good start to this enterprise and only loses 18’’ today.
Groenewegen is probably the second best sprinter on the startlist and will be aiming for stage glory and the maglia ciclamino.
Dombrowski would have been a podium contender at least in the past years but now he’ll be happy with a top 5 result. Today he’s 34’’ down.
Morton is a podium contender for the GC and shows so by only losing 25’’ today.
Pogacar will aim for a podium at least but will even more be possible for him? Today he loses 22’’.
Bernal already has a Vuelta win in his palmares and is one of the contenders to add a Giro one as well. He’s also the best TTer among the GC riders and only loses 15’’.
Gaviria dominated the sprints at the same race and will look forward to do so in the Giro as well.
And finally another GC winner of last season and the big favourite for this Giro: Kudus loses 20’’ today.
And he’s actually done it! Even the jury does not dare to take the win away from local hero Ganna who obviously also adds the GC and points lead to his tally.
Hopkins takes the white jersey. That’s clearly a first for Bermuda and the whole Caribbean in a GT?
King Power is also the leading team after finishing 1st and 3rd today.
[GT] Giro d’Italia 
