A devastatingly-strong performance by Remco Evenepoel in the opening time trial of the Giro d’Italia has seen the reigning World Champion capture his first-ever stage victory in the corsa rosa and take the leader’s pink jersey. He made a massive statement about his GC intentions all in one fell swoop.
As chance would have it, Evenepoel’s opening triumph took place just a few kilometres away from the coastal city of Pescara, where 22 years ago the previous Belgian to lead the Giro, Rik Verbrugghe, also won the opening time trial.
But on this occasion, Evenepoel has much greater ambitions than one stage victory and a brief spell in the pink jersey. And on a Giro route featuring 70 kilometres of racing against the clock, his advantage of 22 seconds over second-placed time trial specialist Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) on stage 1 augers more than well for the two longer, tougher time trials to come.
Even more importantly long-term than his advantage over Ganna, Evenepoel’s margin of 29 seconds on closest GC rival João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), 40 seconds on 2020 Giro d’Italia winner Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) and 46 on Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) confirms, that in the time trials at least, the Belgian is already operating on another, higher level than his key rivals.
Even Evenepoel said he was surprised by the time gaps, pointing out afterwards that “it was quite a flat TT and to ride so much faster than the others on that kind of course is not that easy.
"I would have been happy with 15 seconds, so to have 30 seconds or more is amazing. It’s always better to start with an advantage, so I’m coming away with only positive feelings.
“It was a course, though, that suited me very well: straight and flat with a short bump in the finale, I knew I had to take as much advantage as possible on the others and we did it very well.”
Already a winner of a Grand Tour time trial in Alicante in the Vuelta a España last year, eight months later Evenepoel looked completely on track for a second such victory almost from the moment he rolled down the start ramp. Confirmation that his assured, rock-steady position on the bike could see some top results first came when he pulverized Geraint Thomas’ (Ineos Grenadiers) best time at the first intermediate time check by a jaw-dropping 20 seconds.
The Belgian went from strength to strength and did not appear to make a single mistake, barely lowering his speed as he blasted through the chicane leading off the coastal bike path, shooting past minute-man Daan Hoole (Trek-Segafredo) just before the final uphill and gaining 42 seconds on arch-rival Roglič by the second checkpoint.
The only possibility of a late setback could have been if, like Thomas, Evenepoel had overestimated his strength in the first flat part of the TT then paid the price on the final ascent. But instead, Evenepoel roared up the climb with virtually no change in pace, storming home to start his Grand Tour campaign just as he ended it last year - in the lead.
Evenepoel confirmed that he had used the same monster 60-tooth chainring as in the Vuelta TT last year: “I feel good with it and have only had good results with it,” he pointed out, “the win in the Vuelta, third in the World’s, the win in the UAE Tour. So it made sense to keep using it here.”
“The plan was to gain as much time as possible overall, so I went as hard as I could on the first part of the climb, tried to recover on the flatter section that came after, then go as fast as possible again in the last part.”
Apart from the stage, Evenepoel described the additional reward of the pink jersey as a “big honour” but not the biggest goal of the opening TT. “It’s a nice extra, but I always said the most important thing was to wear pink in Rome,” he pointed out.
“But it’s good to have the feeling of wearing it now, it’s a big achievement in my life. I prefer to wear the rainbow jersey, but it’s a nice change to have the pink jersey over it.”
That said, when reminded that the last time Italian football team Napoli had won the league before 2022-23 was in 1990, the same year Gianni Bugno led the Giro from beginning to end, Evenepoel said he had no intention of trying to imitate the Italian double World Champion this May.
“Of course, it would be better to try and give the jersey away at some point and stage 4” - the first uphill finish at Lago Laceno - “would be a good possibility,” he recognised. “But first I’m going to enjoy it.
“It’s good for my confidence, too, to know I’m in such good shape: now I have to try to stay upright on the bike and not get sick.”
Evenepoel has already had plenty of exceptional moments in his career, but even if dealing such a devastating blow in first day of the Giro d’Italia is a massive achievement, the Belgian had a clear idea of where this success figured in his personal ranking of his different triumphs.
“For sure this is not the best day of my career,” he concluded. “That was maybe when I won Liège or the World Championships. But it is one of the better days and I’ll try to have more days like this in the other time trials, and the last week of the race."
