Let’s be honest about it! Who would have expected such a blow in the very first round? Very few to say the least! Today, Remco Evenepoel showed not only an amazing physical condition, but he seemed to be at a level he had perhaps never reached before. Why? Because of Ganna. The locomotive from Verbania delivered an outstanding time trial, just think that he managed to beat his long-time rival Stefan Küng by 21 seconds, yet the Italian had to bow to the strength of the Flemish baby phenomenon.
Slapping 22 seconds off Ganna in an individual time trial that was almost entirely flat and not even that long, 19.6 km to be exact, is tangible evidence of just how strong Remco was today. 55.2 km/h average speed, with the last 3 km slightly uphill, is an eye-watering performance, something that clearly tells us that the first Maglia Rosa of this Giro d’Italia might well be the last.
The much-anticipated first head-to-head clash between Evenepoel and Primož Roglič ended with a resounding defeat for the latter, which we are sure not even the Slovenian could have expected. The captain of Jumbo-Visma did an all-in-all good race, absolutely in line with that of the other favourites, but today the World Champion delivered a world class performance and a 43″ margin not even 20 km into the competition is honestly a lot.
