Giro shorts: Stage 1 review

Stage 1: Herning to Herning, 8.7km individual time trial

Stage profile: An 8.7km individual time trial around the streets of Herning, the home-town of Saxo Bank team owner Bjarne Riis. The first part of the course is twisty and technical, while the second half is more flowing and favours more traditional powerful time trial specialists.

Top three: 1. Taylor Phinney (BMC), 2. Geraint Thomas (Sky), 3. Alex Rasmussen (Garmin-Barracuda).

How the stage was won: The stage was always tipped to be a battle between Geraint Thomas and Taylor Phinney in this opening ITT and they did not disappoint. Phinney smashed Thomas’s time by nine seconds and Alex Rasmussen came in just four seconds off Thomas’ time. Continue reading

Giro shorts: Stage 1 preview

Stage 1: Herning to Herning, 8.7km individual time trial

Stage profile: An 8.7km individual time trial around the streets of Herning, the home-town of Saxo Bank team owner Bjarne Riis. The first part of the course is twisty and technical, suiting strong bike-handlers and explosive riders comfortable with continuous hard accelerations. The stop-start nature may also dull the legs of the more traditional time trial specialists, preventing them from fully using their power to exploit the more flowing second half of the course. The fastest finishers should duck just under 11 minutes. Continue reading