Remco Evenepoel lands first blow in Giro d'Italia fight

Belgian sets out his stall with a sensational ride against the clock, reports Vern Pitt

- Vern Pitt

Reigning world champion Remco Evenepoel landed the first blow in the fight for the pink jersey with victory in the time trial on Saturday.

The Belgian put in a storming ride on the race's opening time trial to take the lead in the general classification distancing most of his main rivals by nearly a minute. And although before the race got under way Evenepoel had hinted he may be inclined to give up the jersey to another rider who was no threat to his GC ambitions, were he to take it, he was on Monday expending small amounts of energy to add valuable bonus seconds to his lead at intermediate sprints.

Even so, he remained casual about it. "It wasn't my plan at the start of the day to sprint for bonifications, but since I was there I decided to do it, because it didn't cost me any energy," said Evenepoel.

Come the end of the opening three stages João Almeida (UAE-Emirates) was his closest follower 38 seconds behind; principal challenger Primož Roglič was the next closest to the Soudal-Quick Step leader 44 seconds back, Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Geraint Thomas were 58 seconds off the lead and the latter's Ineos team-mate and co-leader Tao Geoghegan Hart was 1-02 back.