Magic Magnier - Giro d'Italia stage 1 reaction and analysis

In what always promised to be a sprint finish turned into one, but stage 1 of the Giro definitely did not disappoint with breakaways, intermediate sprints, and a huge crash in the finale led to Paul Magnier winning his first stage of a grand tour, and at only 22, it promises to be the first of many for the young Frenchman.

The break of the day went at a kilometre zero with only two riders fancying it in Manuele Tarozzi (Bardiani CSF 7 Saber) and Diego Pablo Sevilla (Polti VisitMalta), the gap only ever got just over two minutes, so it was a break that never promised a win but still was profitable for these two, especially for Sevilla who took both the categorised climbs meaning he will be wearing the Maglia Azzurro tommorrow on stage 2 and with very few major climbs over the coming days he has a chance to keep it for a few days if he can get into the breaks. As for Tarozzi, it wasn't a totally useless day in the break as he took the intermediate sprint points and the Red Bull Kilometre to give him six bonus seconds.

It was this Red Bull Kilometre that finally woke the peloton up, with Lotto-intermarche setting up a two-rider attack which was ultimately closed down and overtaken by UAE team emirates, who, in Antonio Morgardo, took the remaining two bonus seconds with a potential eye on the Maglia Rosa tomorrow in what could well be a day for the break. Other than this, it was a very mild day of cycling with very little happening throughout the day until the final 5km, where the sprint lead-outs began to form first from Uno-X mobility at about 3.5km to go, there was plenty of jostling for position, and pre-race favourite Milan nearly went down and in doing so touched wheels with his main leadout man Consogni forcing him to drop back in the peloton by going the wrong way roundabout.

The main talking point of the day happened with 500m to go as a huge crash involving many of the pre-race favourites, including Kaden Groves and Dylan Groenewegen, who both went down hard, especially Groves, who got flung from his bike and landed on his neck area and was fortunate to get up and walk away from the crash. 

The crash led a group of about 12 riders escaping, including Jonathan Milan, Ethan Vernon, Tobias Lund Andresen and Magnier. Milan seemed to miss his sprint time and never had a prayer to catch Lund Andresen, who led the sprint out and, for much of the sprint, looked like he had it won before Magnier came around him in the closing metres to take the biggest win of his career.

Daniel Mott



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