Richard Carapaz, from the batch of favorites, took advantage, minimal, but after all, secondshis rivals in the fight for the Giro d’Italia title.
The 195-kilometre day, starting in Budapest and finishing in Visegrad, Hungary, was won by Mathieu van del Poel, who was the strongest in the final climb of 4 kilometers, fourth category mountain award, and which had ramps of up to eight percent incline.
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Although Van der Poel fulfills the objective of being leader of the Giro in his first participation, the greatest interest was in the fight for the title of the competition.
Carapaz, with the advantage
Sure, it’s the first stage, and Carapaz won four seconds over Simon Yates, Miguel Ángel López, Tom Dumoulin, Mikel Landa, Romain Bardet and Joao Almeida in that fight.
On paper that time does not mean much, but they are differences after all. The Ecuadorian was the one who showed himself the most in the group on the final climb. He positioned himself well in the lot and scratched seconds, a performance with which he confirms what he came to the competition.
The others felt the effort at the end, the legs did not respond to be with Carapaz and gave up seconds, although the Giro has always been characterized as a race in which the differences at the end are great.
What happened yesterday on the final slope is something that will be seen later, cyclists with serious aspirations to win, wanting to make a difference and take advantage of good form.
López and Sosa, speaking of the Colombians, went up supported by their companions, keeping their distance, but Carapaz was the liveliest, the runner who sought to gain time and got it in the end.
In that fight, another of the beneficiaries was Pello Bilbao, the Spaniard from Bahrain, who slipped ahead, crossed the finish line third and not only won seconds over the rest of the favorites, but also adjusted the bonus.
The Giro is very tender, it barely started, but Carapaz’s intentions are clear, he was the one who first showed his face, that’s how it would have been on that short climb.
The watch
This Saturday, the Giro faces the first 9.2 kilometers to the clock there is, of the 26 that the route has this year.
Looking at the overall and the title candidates, Dumoulin and Yates will have a lot to say ete saturday.
It is a short distance and it is not like to lose important time, but that must be demonstrated on the asphalt.
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The Colombians who are there are not experts, they will surely lose with Dumoulin, Simon Yates and Almeida, but the watchword is not to give up important time.
In Astana they say that López has improved the clock, well, this is a good opportunity to confirm it.
In favor, the Colombians and the other climbers have that the stage ends in a fourth category climb, a terrain that suits them to recover a few seconds.
This year, the guy from Boyacá has only been in one time trial, he was 13 at the start of the Tirreno-Adriatico, stage in which he lost 42 s with the winner, Filippo Ganna, in 13 kilometers. Good post, but left a lot of time.
Dumoulin was third in the 9km time trial at the UAE Tour, dropping 7s to the winner, Stefan Bissegger.
Yates is another who has shown progress and in the 13km Paris-Nice time trial he was fifth just 11s behind Wout van Aert and beating Daniel Martínez by 17 sa, as if to give us an idea.
And Almeida was fifth in the UAE Tour time trial, but finished 22nd in Paris-Nice. The above says that everything remains to be seen.
🔻 LAST KM / STAGE 1️⃣
🇬🇧 The challenge for the first Maglia Rosa is all about power. The road tilts, the show begins.
🇮🇹 La sfida per la prima Maglia Rosa si gioca sulla potenza. The strada does incline, it initiates it spettacolo.
powered by @ItaliaNFT_art #Turn pic.twitter.com/M6hcIpZB8P
— Giro d’Italia (@giroditalia) May 6, 2022
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Lisandro Rengifo
Editor of THE TIME
@lisandroabel
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