On Saturday, Ineos Grenadiers may not have been able to celebrate a third opening time trial victory in four years by Filippo Ganna at the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Giro d’Italia, but their GC contenders 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tao Geoghegan H𝓰art and Geraint Thomas both delivered perform𒊎ances that were far from disappointing all the same.

2020 Giro winner Geoghegan Hart came home a promising fourth at 40 seconds and even briefly had a spell in the hot seat as provisional stage leader, before 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Ganna finished second. Meanwhile, Thomas turned in a blistering first two-thirds of the course and despite fading badly o💖n the final climb, still finished ninth, at 5🅰5 seconds.

Of the GC contenders, only 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) were faster than Geoghegan Hart, whi♐le Thomas came through the first big GC day with hi♚s options almost equally intact.

The 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:recent winner of the Tour of th🍸e Alps, Geoghegan Hart had insisted pre-Giro that the results from the week-long mountainous stage race were not necessarily pointers for the Italian Grand Tour. But if his victory two weeks ago in the former Giro di Trentin♛o may or may not be a reference point for the climbs to come in the Giro d'Italia, in anyone's book, his stage 1 time tria🦩l result is a good start come what may.

Speaking before the stage was over, Geoghegan Hart said his performance was “not a bad execution, there are still a lot of big names to come. 𝕴But in terms of my delivery I’m happy with it, I felt really good, so no issues there.”

He was moღre cautious about describing it as a positive sign for the stages ♓to come.

“It was a bit as I expected, so that’s always a good sign. But in the end it’s only 20 minutes and a really fast course, so I don’t think you can read too 🅷much into it.”

Geoghegan Hart dismissed suggestions from one reporter that, judging by the way 🍌he was looking, it could be that he was either feeling tired or sad post-stage, replying “neither, I’m just calm, mate, this is stage 1 and there are three w👍eeks to go.”

“You might be excited, but we riders have to recover now, we’ve got eight days more of racing be𓂃fore the rest day. You shouldn’t read too much into [people’s] demeanour, in the end we’re focussing on tomorrow, today is done.”

Thomas offered a clear-sighted analysis of his performance, which s🌌aw him br🐎iefly clock the best time for the opening eight kilometres of the course before a Belgian ballistic missile disguised as a bike rider swept all before him. Thomas kept himself very much in the mix as far as the foot of the climb, where it all went a shade awry for the Welshman, but he did not collapse by any means.

A winner of the opening time trial in the Tour de France in 2017 and fourth in the Giro’s stage 1 TT in Palermo in 2020, Thomas described his ride in the equivalent event in th𓃲e Giro six years later as “an average start". 

"I think I started too hard, and then tried to back off a bit, save a bit for the climb. I was not going too well there,” Thomas said. “I wꦬas a bit on the limit and I couldn’t get comfy, and you always know when you’re not feeling quite on it.

“I was🍨 OK, I limited the time I lost, there were a couple of corners where you always think you could hav𝔉e gone a bit quicker. But it is what it is, and it’s always good to get the race started.”

While saying later he was “not particularly satisfied” with his performance, Thomas was pleased, in any case, to see how well Geoghegan Hart had do🦩ne. 

“It’s good to see him 🐬up there, we all know how well he’s going,” he said. “It’s a good start. I felt OK, better than I thought I’d be. I’m not particularly satisfied, but there’s a long way to go.”