Ecuador’s Jhonatan Narváez won a sprint finish to claim victory for Ineos Grenadiers on stage one of the Giro d’Italia.
Starting at Venaria Reale, Saturday’s 136km stage featured a category two climb on the Colle della Maddalena before ending in Turin.
There was an early breakaway of six riders, who opened up a lead of around two and a half minutes on the peloton that included the main general classification contenders.
Lilian Calmejane (Intermarche-Wanty) and Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Lidl-Trek) eventually went clear heading towards the Colle della Maddalena, as Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates) took up the chase on the peloton.
Calmejane went for a solo push going into the final 10km but was eventually reeled in before Nicola Conci moved off the front.
Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) attacked from the head of the peloton on the Bivio di San Vito hill, with Narváez and Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) giving chase down towards the finish.
Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-hansgrohe) made a long sprint for the line, but Narváez and Pogacar responded before the Ecuadorian rider timed his move to perfection over the last 200m to take the first Maglia Rosa of the 2024 Giro, in a time of 3 hours, 14 minutes and 13 seconds.
Schachmann was three seconds behind, with Pogacar third. The British rider Geraint Thomas placed 11th in the main peloton, which was 20 seconds back, as GC contenders Thymen Arensman (Ineos) and Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich PostNL) lost significant time.
Stage Two is another hilly course over 161km from San Francesco al Campo to Santuario di Oropa.