Narvaez in the pink after foiling Pogacar to opening Giro stage

AFP | Turin     

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Ecuadorian Ineos rider Jhonatan Narvaez won a ferocious struggle on the opening stage of the Giro d’Italia yesterday to deny pre-race favourite Tadej Pogacar in the final sprint and snatch the overall leader’s pink jersey.

Narvaez stayed on Pogacar’s wheel and then surged clear in a three-way sprint after an eventful 140-kilometre stage to Turin, pipping Max Schachmann and Pogacar to the line. Ineos team-leader Geraint Thomas came in 10th, ten seconds adrift with other contenders Ben O’Connor, Damiano Caruso and Danny Martinez.

Fancied Frenchman Romain Bardet, however, dropped 57sec, which at this early stage does not yet rule him out but is far from ideal. Narvaez was delighted with the biggest win of his career.

“You don’t get many chances like that,” he said of taking the pink jersey. After denying Pogacar an eighth win in just 11 days of competitive racing this year, Narvaez said the Slovenian had made a mistake.

“He launched his sprint too early, after a hard stage like that he went from like 200m. I waited for the 100m mark,” said Narvaez, who allowed Pogacar to do all the work in his bid to become the first man to win the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France double since Marco Pantani in 1998.