Giro d’Italia stage 1 - LIVE Filippo Ganna looks hold off the competition in the individual time trial to secure the maglia rosa

Huys kicks off proceedings in Italy!

176 riders will be going down the ramp today in the ITT, but here are the first five:

Laurens Huys (Intermarché - Circus - Wanty), Campbell Stewart (Team Jayco AlUla), Stefano Gandin (Team Corratec - Selle Italia), Thomas Champion (Cofidis), and Fernando Gaviria (Movistar Team).

Today’s stage is the shortest of the ITT stages, spanning 19.6km along the Italian coast from Fossacesia Marina to Ortona.

There’s a category four climb before the end, but apart from that the route is relatively flat.

We unfortunately won’t be seeing World ITT champion Tobias Foss (Jumbo-Visma) as he’s out of the Giro after testing positive for Covid.

We will however be seeing Stefan Küng (Groupama - FDJ), who was second at the world champs last year and is a former European champion.

Dutch ITT champion Bauke Mollema (Trek - Segafredo) will also be an strong contender.

Former ITT World champion Rohan Dennis (Jumbo-Visma) is also a well established time trial specialist who will be in with a chance today.

Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) and Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), the two general classification favourites this year, will also be looking to stamp their mark on the Giro early on.

Filippo Ganna is most definitely the favourite to take the first stage today. He’s a time trial specialist, and in particular in the Giro, where he won the first stage in 2021 and 2020. Additionally in 2020 he also won stage 14, another ITT stage.

In the same years of 2021 and 2020, he became world champion in the ITT. In 2019, 2021, and 2022 he won the elite men’s Italian national ITT championships, so is the current holder of their national champion jersey. He has won a total of six stages in the Giro across the 2020 and 2021 editions. He also holds the UCI Hour record with 55.548 km covered in an hour on the track.

Born in Verbania in northern Italy, while today’s stage isn’t particularly local, it is in his home country and he’ll be looking to impress once again in his area of expertise.

Buon pomeriggio, good afternoon, and welcome to the 106th Giro d’Italia! The grand tours are back in the men’s calendar and what an exciting few weeks and months we have ahead of us.

Usual procedure here, we’ll start today with an individual time trial. Let’s start by having a look at the course and the contenders.