The cyclist Ecuadorian Jhonatan Narváez (INEOS Grenadiers) This Saturday he won the first stage of the men’s Giro d’Italia, held over 140 kilometers of medium mountains starting in Venaria Reale and finishing in Turin, with sprint victory over the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), main favorite to don the pink ‘maglia’.

The first section of the day, completely flat, saw rushes that resulted in a breakaway as the km 8 with Louis Barré (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Nicolas Debeaumarché (Cofidis), Lilian Calmejane (Intermarché-Wanty), Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Lidl-Trek), Andrea Pietrobon (Team Polti Kometa) and Filippo Fiorelli (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè ).

Then the UAE Team Emirates, team of the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, began to lead the chase when the gap exceeded a minute and a half.

His next objective was promote to Superga, 3rd category, 78 kilometers from the end. And there Calmejane accelerated until breaking the break in several groups, although it was Ghebreigzabhier who crowned first. After that, both stayed ahead of the others and there was still almost half a stage left.

Without any mishaps beyond the scare, the Colle Maddalena predicted the hunt for Calmejane and Ghebreigzabhier. Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) and Michael Woods (Israel-PremierTech) jumped from behind, followed by Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon AG2R La Worlde) and Matteo Trentin (Tudor). he the UAE Team Emirates continued pullingin particular with Mikkel Bjerg.

End of the Pogacar escape and attacks

The escape ended 10 kilometers from the finish line, and after the work of Rafal Majka (UAE Team Emirates), the race seemed designed in favor of Pogacar.

Less than five kilometers to finish, Pogacar started with Narváez at the wheel and Maximilian Schachmann (BORA-hansgrohe) in their wake.

The Bivio di San Vito, a wall included by the Giro organization in the weeks before the start, became decisive. AND Narváez was faster than Pogacar, also advanced ‘in extremis’ by Schachmann. Thanks to a final time of 3:14:23 at the finish line, the Ecuadorian became the first leader of this Giro 2024.

Stage classification:

1 – NARVÁEZ Jhonatan (INEOS) 3:14:23

2 – SCHACHMANN Maximilian (BORA) mt

3 – POGACAR Tadej (UAE) mt

4 – BAUDIN Alex (AG2R) + 0:06

5 – CONCI Nicola (Alpecin) + 0:10

6 – HERMANS Quinten (Alpecin) mt

7 – VANSEVENANT Mauri (Soudal) mt

8 – TIBERI Antonio (Bahrain) mt

9 – VALTER Attila (Visma) mt

10 – THOMAS Geraint (INEOS) m . t.

General ranking

1 – NARVÁEZ Jhonatan (INEOS) 3:14:13

2 – SCHACHMANN Maximilian (BORA) + 0:03

3 – POGACAR Tadej (UAE) + 0:06

4 – BAUDIN Alex (AG2R) + 0:16

5 – CARUSO Damiano (Bahrain) + 0:17

6 – CONCI Nicola (Alpecin) + 0:18

7 – HERMANS Quinten (Alpecin) + 0:20

8 – VANSEVENANT Mauri (Soudal) mt

9 – TIBERI Antonio (Bahrain) mt

10 – VALTER Attila (Visma) mt

Source: Eitb

Kingston

Kingston is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.