Dumoulin Wins Opening Giro Stage

Dumoulin in Apeldoorn - Getty Images

Tom Dumoulin won the opening individual time trial of the Giro d’Italia by the finest of margins in Apeldoorn on Friday. At the end of the flat 9.8km route the Dutchman beat Primoz Roglic of Slovenia by one hundredth of a second.

“It’s incredible. I can almost not describe it in words,” said Dumoulin, who added that he felt sick afterwards. “A hundredth of a second is a breath of air and that’s it.

“It’s better than I could have imagined. In front of my home crowd to get the most beautiful jersey in cycling is very special. I did no big mistakes. You always think you could have done this corner a bit better or that one … it wasn’t my best time trial but I’m wearing this jersey now. I will defend this as long as possible. I don’t think I have the level to compete in the real big mountains.”

Roglic took the lead off Dumoulin’s Giant-Alpecin team-mate, Tobias Ludvigsson, who had been in the hot seat for around 90 minutes. Ludvigsson eventually finished fourth, eight seconds behind the leading pair and two seconds behind the Costa Rican Andrey Amador.

Another time trial specialist, Fabian Cancellara, was hoping for a victory that would have handed him the first maglia rosa of his long career. But he was hampered by stomach flu and finished eighth, 14 seconds behind Dumoulin.

The overall favorite Vincenzo Nibali, the 2013 champion, was 19 seconds behind in 16th. “It was a very explosive time trial. I had to make a really big effort,” Nibali said. “It’s one stage out of the way now.

“I can be more than satisfied by what’s happened but let’s just keep our feet on the ground. One or two days before a Grand Tour you can feel nervous and I’m just happy we’re under way now.”

The Swiss rider Stefan Kung threatened to challenge Dumoulin’s lead as he was only one second slower at 4.8km but he crashed into the barriers and finished 16 seconds behind.

The 99th Giro continues in the Netherlands with two sprint stages before an early rest day and a transfer to Italy. The race ends in Turin on 29 May.

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Geraint Thomas Returns to Flanders

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Team Sky's Geraint Thomas returns to action for the first time since withdrawing from the Volta a Catalunya in Sunday's Tour of Flanders.

The 29-year-old Welshman won the Paris-Nice stage race in early March, but struggled with fatigue in Spain.

Thomas was favourite going into the 2015 Tour of Flanders, but has had a low-key build up this time.

"There's less expectation around me [but] we've got a super strong team," Thomas told BBC Radio Wales.

"We've got lots of cards to play so as long as one of us is on the top step on the podium that would be awesome."

Team Sky have never won one of cycling's big five annual one-day races - known as "The Monuments" - and Fabian Cancellara of Leopard Trek is the fancied rider this year.

Thomas believes he has benefited from resting after his withdrawal in Catalunya.

The double Olympic gold-medallist also thinks his team are closer to claiming victory after disappointments in previous years.

"It's all good now, I'm feeling healthy," he added.

"I had maybe four days off because I was run down after Paris-Nice, but I'm better now so it was a good call in the end.

"In previous years in some of the warm-up races I've been right there, but this is the big one everyone wants to do well in.

"And over the years for one reason or another it hasn't quite happened but hopefully this can be the year. I guess time will tell."

Team Sky (at the Tour of Flanders): Michal Golas, Christian Knees, Michal Kwiatkowski, Gianni Moscon, Salvatore Puccio, Luke Rowe, Ian Stannard, Geraint Thomas

The "Five Monuments" of cycling

Milan-San Remo - First raced in 1907

Tour of Flanders - First raced in 1912

Paris-Roubaix - First raced in 1896

Liege-Bastogne-Liege - The oldest of the five, first raced in 1894

Giro di Lombardia - Raced in early autumn since 1905

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