TIRANA, Albania (AP) — British cyclist Joshua Tarling beat pre-race favorite Primoz Roglic by a solitary second in an individual time trial to win the second stage of the Giro d’Italia on Saturday.
Roglic moved into the pink jersey, albeit only just.
Tarling, who rides for Ineos Grenadiers, finished the 14-kilometer (8.5-mile) route through the Albanian capital of Tirana in 16 minutes, seven seconds.
He faced a nervous wait to see if any of the following 58 riders could beat his time. Roglic went close but crossed the line just a second slower, to the obvious relief of Tarling, who shook his head and smiled wryly in the leader’s chair.
“It’s not nice, I don’t want to do it again,” Tarling said with a laugh when asked about the wait. “It was a long day for 13k … Primoz really scared me so, yeah, it was stressful there.”
It was a first Grand Tour stage victory for Tarling, who also became the youngest Giro time trial winner in history at 21.
“I can’t believe it to be honest. I’ve been trying and I’m so happy,” he added.
Jay Vine was third, three seconds slower than Tarling.
Roglic’s overall lead was slender. The Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe rider has an advantage of just a second over Mads Pedersen, who won the opening stage on Friday.
“It’s like a beautiful surprise,” Roglic said. “I mean, okay, you know that you are strong, but that doesn’t mean that you know how fast everyone else will go. At the end was really close today, one second off, so really, really happy about it.”
Mathias Vacek moved into third overall, five seconds behind Roglic.
The Giro remains in Albania for Sunday’s third stage. The hilly 160-kilometer (99-mile) leg starts and finishes in the coastal city of Vlore, which is directly across the Adriatic from the Italian region of Puglia, where the race will resume on Tuesday after a rest day.
The race ends in Rome on June 1.
“For me, it doesn’t change the plan overall much,” Roglic said about taking the pink jersey so early. “The plan is to have it on while arriving in Rome.
“Pedersen, for tomorrow is a good stage again for him. So we will see what will happen. Probably they will take it back.”
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AP cycling: https://apnews.com/hub/cycling
