2016 Giro d'Italia: Stage 1 Results

Tom Dumoulin (NED) won the time trial which opened the 2016 Giro d’Italia in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, and became the first to wear the pink jersey of the race leader, while Tobias Ludvigsson (SWE) finished fourth to become best young rider.

“This is incredible, even better than I ever dreamed. To win by such a small gap before this incredible home crowd is a very special feeling. There was pressure before the start but the experience from Utrecht last year helped me a lot and I was able to focus on my effort.

“This is a huge success not only for me but also for everyone in the team. For the upcoming stages we will try and defend this leader’s position for as long as possible. For sure, I will enjoy my day in the pink jersey tomorrow.”

Team LottoNL-Jumbo rider Primoz Roglic was just 0.022 second shy of a major upset in the opening stage. The Slovenian finished his time trial in 11-03 minutes and was provisionally the fastest for a long time before Dumoulin beat him by a hair.

“I didn’t even dream about winning this time trial,” Roglic said about his second place. “I’ve delivered some fine time trials, but they weren’t even close to what the specialists are capable of. I was very close today, though. I don’t think that I did anything wrong, but to be honest, I haven’t been thinking about it at all.

“It was totally crazy around me on the course. I wasn’t even able to hear my sports director talking to me through the ear piece.”

Sports Director Addy Engels was not expecting Roglic to put in such a ride. “We weren’t counting on a Primoz win at all,” he added. “He said that he was feeling stronger than ever, but we don’t know that much about Primoz at the moment, so nobody knew what that meant. We know now, and it makes it even more painful that he didn’t win. He delivered the time trial of his life, but doesn’t have the pink jersey.”

Stage 1 Results: