Giro d’Italia Stage 2 LIVE – Individual time trial with Van der Poel in pink

Day two context

Welcome to our live updates as the Giro d’Italia continues for Stage 2 in Budapest for what will be a very short and punchy individual time trial.

After what was a largely flat 195km route on Stage 1 from the capital to Visegrad, Stage 2 sees the riders negotiate a very short and sharp 9.2km individual time trial around Budapest.

With the GC favourites easing themselves in for what will be three gruelling weeks, it is now time for the fast and furious individual time trial which could seriously shake things up.

Recap from Stage 1

If the whole world expected it, Mathieu van der Poel still (Alpecin-Fenix) had to deliver the goods. The 27-year-old Dutchman did just that – keeping his powder dry right to the bitter end of the deciding climb to surge past Eritrea’s Biniam Girmay of Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert in the 195km opening stage of the Giro from Budapest to Visegrad in Hungary.

As Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) dug deep to stay in contact, the Australian sprinter touched wheels with Girmay and hit the deck just ahead of the line – allowing Spain’s Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) to take third place ahead of Denmark’s Magnus Cort (EF Education-EastPost).

Girmay, the Eritrean trailblazer who became the first African to win a cobbled classic earlier this spring, looked destined to write another glorious chapter in his remarkable rise. But the 22-year-old was just caught by Van der Poel, who timed his final kick to perfection to take the race’s first maglia rosa – on a ramped finish quite similar to that at Mur de Bretagne where he secured a maiden maillot jaune at last year’s Tour de France.

“I knew positioning was going to be the key to the win today,” Van der Poel said after his latest triumph of what is provinf to be another stellar season. “It was quite difficult at times and I found myself boxed in and I had to use up a lot of energy to catch up with the guys in front. My legs were full of lactic at the end and it really hurt – but it’s incredible after the yellow jersey to wear the pink.”

WHEN IS STAGE 2?

STAGE 2 PROFILE AND ROUTE MAP

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