Top-10 for Ulissi as Giro d’Italia gets underway

UAE Team Emirates had quiet but encouraging start to day 1 of the Giro d’Italia in Budapest, with veteran Diego Ulissi taking 8th place in the uphill battle to the line won by Mathieu Van Der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix).

The stage from Budapest to Visegrád (195km) sprung into action in the final 5km at an average of 4%, with the uphill rise to the line marking out the pure sprinters. It was Davide Formolo who hit out at 700m to go to set up his teammate Ulissi. Ulissi would find himself outpaced by the heavier puncheurs, but showing good legs for the weeks ahead.

Ulissi : “I think we did good work as a team today. We were in a good position coming into the base of the last climb. In the end I stayed with the front guys and did my sprint but the others just had that bit more of a kick in the end. The main thing today was to start strongly and we’ve shown we are in good shape so we’ll focus now on the next stages.”

Joao Almeida was never far from the action, and finished just behind the leaders in a group with most of the other main GC favourites.

The Portuguese all-rounder would concede 4’’ to the winner and will look to a strong performance in tomorrow’s 9km time trial around the streets of Budapest.

 
Giro D’Italia Stage 1 & GC results

1.Mathieu Van Der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) 4:35:28
2.Binian Girmay (Wanty-Intermarche) s.t
3.Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) s.t
8.Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) s.t