Narváez outsprints Giro d'Italia favorite Pogačar to win opening stage in Turin

TURIN, Italy (AP) — Ecuadorian cyclist Jhonatan Narváez marred Tadej Pogačar’s Giro d’Italia debut as he edged the Slovenian star to victory in the opening stage on Saturday.

Narváez took the leader’s pink jersey that Pogačar is heavily favored to be wearing when the race ends in Rome in three weeks.

Rarely has the Giro had such an overwhelming pre-race favorite as Pogačar, with the two-time Tour de France winner targeting an audacious Giro-Tour double.

Pogačar had never competed in the Italian grand tour before and he was hoping to ride into pink right from the start but Narváez beat him and Max Schachmann in a sprint between the three riders at the end of the 140-kilometer (87-mile) route from Venaria Reale to Turin.

Schachmann also edged out Pogačar.

“Following the best guy in the world on the climb was really hard, so it’s a special victory today," Narváez said. "It’s still hurting me now. It was really hard. Really, really hard. But in the end, I make it.”

“I think he (Pogačar) went too long in the sprint, 200 meters after a really hard stage and I did a short sprint and in the end I took the victory.”

Narváez was swiftly embraced by Ineos Grenadiers teammate Geraint Thomas, last year's runner-up, who is likely to be Pogačar's main challenger.

Thomas and most of the other GC contenders finished within 10 seconds of the leading trio. But there was disappointment for another Ineos Grenadiers rider in Thymen Arensman as he finished more than two minutes behind Narváez.

Romain Bardet and Luke Plapp also both lost more than a minute after all three were dropped on the second-category Colle Maddalena. They were expected to be among the challengers for a podium finish.

There was a special pink jersey as the stage commemorated the 1949 Superga air disaster involving the Torino soccer team. The maglia rosa had the words “Solo il Fato li vinse”, or “Only Fate defeated them,” written on the inside of the collar, in Torino’s colors.

The opening leg went over the Superga hill where the Torino team’s plane crashed, to mark the 75th anniversary of the tragedy. All 31 people on board the plane died.

As well as the Superga climb there were two other categorized climbs plus two rides up a steep but uncategorized ascent — including once shortly before the finish — as the Giro got off to an unusually difficult start.

It was on that final climb that Pogačar made his move, upping the pace so that only Narváez and Schachmann could stay with him.

They swiftly caught the remnants of the breakaway and then leader Nicola Conci and Pogačar and Narváez crested the summit together before being joined by Schachmann on the descent, setting it up for the sprint to the line.

Sunday’s second stage will also be challenging. There are three classified climbs, including a top category uphill finish, in an undulating 161-kilometer (100-mile) route from San Francesco al Campo to Santuario di Oropa.

It will be the earliest mountain finish at the Giro since 1989 when the race began in Sicily and went up Mount Etna.

The Giro ends in Rome on May 26.

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