CYCLING – WELSHMAN Joshua Tarling (INEOS Grenadiers) set a time-trial pace even race favourite Primoz Roglic could not match to win stage two of the Giro d’Italia by one second yesterday.
Tarling secured his first Grand Tour stage victory after the 21-year-old Briton had a nervous wait to see Roglic come so close, but the Slovenian had to settle for second place with the consolation of taking over the leader’s pink jersey.
Australian Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) had set the early pace but came in third, three second behind Tarling in the short 13.7km individual time-trial in Tirana.
“To win today is definitely exceptional,” Tarling said.
Vine crashed on Friday’s opening stage, but took the lead from Italian Edoardo Affini, before Tarling showed his time-trial prowess.
Tarling came third in the 2023 world road time-trial and, racing his first Giro, had to sit and watch as the main contenders attempted to steal the win.
“Waiting for the other riders to complete the course was hard too, I don’t want to do it again,” Tarling said.
“It was long. I was afraid of everyone among the favourites.”
All eyes were on 2023 winner Roglic, and with reigning champion Tadej Pogacar deciding to focus on the Tour de France, the 35-year-old Slovenian is expected to become the oldest ever Giro winner.
Roglic, however, fell short, and Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) was well off the pace early in his ride. Van Aert beat Tarling to the bronze medal at last year’s Olympic Games.
Opening stage winner Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) was last to go and despite pushing hard to the end, the Dane finished 12 seconds down in seventh place and lost the overall lead to Roglic by one second.
Tarling, racing only his second Grand Tour having failed to finish last year’s Vuelta A Espana, became the youngest rider to win a Giro time-trial.
Sunday’s stage three is the last time the riders will tackle the Albanian roads in this year’s Giro, with a 160km ride that starts and finishes in Vlore.
The world and Olympic time-trial champion Remco Evenepoel is absent from the ongoing Giro edition and Filippo Ganna and defending Giro and Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar are also conspicuous by their absence.
Albania is hosting the 2025 Giro with the Balkan country witnessing a tourism boom.
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