2013 champion simply happy the race is underway after 'pressure' of long build-up
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Vincenzo Nibali finished 16th in the Giro d'Italia's opening stage, coming in 19 seconds behind winner Tom Dumoulin.
Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) andl Dutch King Willem Alexander(Image credit: Courtesy of Polartec-Kometa)
Vincenzo Nibali (Astana)(Image credit: Courtesy of Polartec-Kometa)
Vincenzo Nibali and Alexandr Vinokourov(Image credit: Courtesy of Polartec-Kometa)
Vincenzo Nibali at the team presentation(Image credit: Courtesy of Polartec-Kometa)
Relief was the overwhelming emotion for Vincenzo Nibali as he got his Giro d'Italia underway and made small but significant gains on his general classification rivals over the 9.8 kilometres that made up the opening time trial in Apeldoorn.
Nibali (Astana) clocked a time of 11:22 on the flat, fast course to finish 16th on the stage, 19 seconds behind winner Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin). Dumoulin emerged as a GC rider at last year's Vuelta a España but has repeatedly made clear that the overall is not on his agenda here, which leaves Nibali at the top of the pile after the opening rally.
The Italian put 21 seconds into last year's podium finisher Mikel Landa (Team Sky), and five seconds into last year's Tour de France third-place finisher Alejandro Valverde (Movistar). Rigoberto Urán was distanced by 14 seconds, Rafal Majka (Tinkoff) by 19, Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) by 13, and Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) by three. Andrey Amador, fourth at last year's Giro, was third on the stage and 13 seconds quicker than Nibali, but the Spaniard is set to spend most of his efforts this month working for Valverde.
Despite the drawing of first blood, Nibali was most happy simply that the Giro was underway, with the hype and pressure of the build-up making way for actual racing itself.
The 31-year-old is widely regarded as the top favourite here, certainly in the eyes of Italians, with 'Nibali versus everyone' the headline plastered on the front page of La Gazzetta dello Sport on Friday morning. You sense that such talk has not been entirely welcome, with Nibali delivering a string of cagey and non-committal responses in Wednesday's pre-race press conference.
Patrick is a freelance sports writer and editor. He’s an NCTJ-accredited journalist with a bachelor’s degree in modern languages (French and Spanish). Patrick worked full-time at Cyclingnews for eight years between 2015 and 2023, latterly as Deputy Editor.
