Giro d'Italia LIVE: Updates from the stage one time trial

Hello and welcome to live coverage of the stage one time trial of the 2021 Giro d'Italia, the first Grand Tour of the season!

The first rider is off at 14.00 local time (CEST), or 13.00 if you're in the UK.

You can find the full list of start times here.

The opening time trial is short flat affair, just 8.6km in length and suited to the more powerful time trial riders like world champion Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), who's the clear favourite to take the opening time trial for a second year in a row

You can see where the big names or your favourite riders start times are by checking out our stage one start times list.

But the first rider who has just set off is Filippo Tagliani of Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec. 

The second rider off in the 104th Giro d'Italia start ramp in Turin is the young Dutch sprinting talent of David Dekker. He was coming to this race as the team's sprinter but he now has to potentially work with Dylan Groenewegen.

One of the pre-stage favourites for the day, Victor Campenaerts or Team Qhubeka-Assos, sets off on his ride. New helmets and kit with a new position for 2021, will it be a winning change?

Dekker is the first rider across the line today as he pipped Tagliani on the line catching his minute man. 

Meanwhile, Campenaerts is now coming in with a time of 9-19 and only 0.73 seconds faster than Dekker! Was that an amazing ride by the Dutchman or a poor one by Campenaerts?

At the split, Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) was just two seconds down on Campenaerts with Gorka Izagirre (Astana-Premier Tech) at just over three seconds down.

Izagirre coming in eight seconds down in the end of his ride behind the leader. Not a bad start but he is working for Aleksandr Vlasov, his Russian leader.

Mollema is over nine seconds down on Campenaerts. That's not bad at all for the Dutchman. It'll be interesting to see how Trek-Segafredo does in this race with Vincenzo Nibali, Bauke Mollema, Giulio Ciccone and Gianluca Brambilla in the team.

Jonathan Castroviejo (Ineos Grenadiers) coming into the finish and he takes the lead with a 9-14! Beating second place Roger Kluge (Lotto-Soudal) bu 2.7 seconds. Campenaerts clearly on a bad day.

Dylane Groenewegen (Jumbo-Visma) is out on course for his first race since that crash with Fabio Jakobsen at the Tour of Poland.

Meanwhile, Luis León Sánchez (Astana-Premier Tech) has had a rear wheel puncture so is now finishing the stage on a road bike bizarrely. 

Giacomo Nizzolo (Qhubeka-Assos) and Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal) have both set off. Interesting to see how Ewan does this year as he searches to take a win at all three Grand Tours. Probably won't be today though, he'll be aiming for tomorrow.

Groenewegen coming into the finish a fair way down at 45 seconds behind Castroviejo. 

Sánchez comes in at 1-09 after his mechanical. Not bad considering he's on a road bike. 

From the Spanish road champion to the Spanish TT champion, Pello Bilbao is officially here for Mikel Landa but the Bahrain Victorious rider could definitely be in with a shout to win with multiple tricky descents. He's just set off. 

Movistar's TT specialist, Nelson Oliveira is coming in but he just misses out with a 9-16, two seconds down on Castroviejo. 

Alessandro De Marchi in that great looking blue and red Israel Start-Up Nation kit has just come in fourth. Brilliant rider by the Italian veteran.

Pello Bilbao coming to the line now but he will not be beating his fellow countryman and finishes over 10 seconds down from Castroviejo.

I think it's safe to say that the two big favourites for today are world champion Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) and Rémi Cavagna (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) but who will come out on top?

Cavagna has the upper hand this year, especially in recent races as he beat Ganna twice at the Tour de Romandie.

But it's home roads for Ganna who is from the region where Turin is and it is one of his big goals of the year. Ganna has lost all but two of his TT efforts this year. After winning at the UAE Tour and Etoile de Bessèges, the Italian has since been beaten at Tirreno-Adriatico and the aforementioned Tour de Romandie.

Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange) on whether he'll attack the race from the first mountain day or not he said: "We'll see, we have to see how the prologue goes first, I know it's a cliché but we take it day-by-day.

Read more on our story on Yates' press conference (opens in new tab) from a couple of days ago to see what the British rider had to say.

Young Italian Samuele Battistella (Astana-Premier Tech) sets a solid time down in 8th at just over five seconds from Castroviejo. 

Matthias Brändle of Israel Start-Up Nation has set a superb time with the Austrian time trial champion goes into the lead with a 9-09, that's almost five seconds faster than Castroviejo.

One of the favourites for the overall this year. Perhaps more realistic to look at the top five for former Russian road race champion, Aleksandr Vlasov of Astana-Premier Tech sets off.

The Shark of Messina, Vincenzo Nibali sets off with a broken wrist. Will that hold him back and can he show any of his old form? He starts as the leader of Trek-Segafredo.

Vlasov coming in now and this is quite a surprisingly fast time from the Russian. 9-11! Just 1.83 seconds down on Brändle! That is an amazing ride by the Russian.

Nibali coming in now and he has already lost time to Vlasov. 18 seconds down on Brändle with a broken wrist isn't bad.

The controversial Gianni Moscon of Ineos Grenadiers misses out on the lead by 0.89 seconds. The Italian is in brilliant form after two stage wins at the Tour of the Alps a couple of weeks ago.

One of the outside favourites for the day is the young Norwegian rider for Jumbo-Visma, Tobias Foss. He showed amazing time trialing form at the Tour of the Basque Country finishing just behind his team-mate, Primož Roglič. Can he trouble the big hitters today?

Foss is just 0.91 seconds down at the intermediate split just after the halfway point of the route. He is looking very strong so far against the rest who have finished so far.

Foss flies past his minute an inside the final kilometre using the Androni car as a slingshot. Tobias Foss takes the lead on stage one of the Giro d'Italia with a 9-00! Superb ride from the young man.

Now one of the two big favourites sets off, French time trial champion Rémi Cavagna of Deceuninck - Quick-Step comes into this race in fantastic form. Can he beat Ganna? We shall see.

Ganna's Ineos Grenadiers team-mate and Colombian time trial champion Dani Martínez has also set off.

Cavagna coming to the split at 1.70 seconds down, so a bit behind Foss but its tenths of seconds in it at the moment.

Cavagna into the final kilometre now but Foss has beaten Cavagna! The French champion is just under five seconds down on the Norwegian! That is an amazing time by Foss then.

Yet another potential outsider for the stage is Italian Edoardo Affini also of Jumbo-Visma. A rider who we expected to develop in a similar way to Ganna, but hasn't quite nailed it yet... Maybe today could be the day to step up?

Britain's first major hope for the Maglia Rosa this year is last year's third place in the Vuelta a España where he finished behind Roglič and Richard Carapaz. 

Carthy put in a very solid time trial at the Vuelta so will hope he can do the same here.

Affini sets a blistering time at the split, almost four seconds faster than anyone else there but can the Italian hold on to the line? The 24-year-old from Mantua in Italy only has two wins to his name at the Tour of Norway and the Tour of Britain both in 2019.

Edoardo Affini is coming to the line now with an amazing time of 8-57! The first sub-nine minute ride beating his team-mate, Foss, by three seconds. 

Carthy coming to the line with a decent ride at 27 seconds down on a supersonic Affini. Some work to do but plenty of climbing to do in these three weeks.

Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers) has set off on his ride. Could the Russian become the co-leader for the British super-team alongside Egan Bernal who is yet to ride.

British national time trial champion, Alex Dowsett of Israel Start-Up Nation sets off on his nine minute effort around Turin.

This is looking like it will be a battle between Ganna and Affini for the first time since stage six of the BinckBank Tour 2019 where Ganna beat Affini by five seconds on an almost identical length course around The Hague in the Netherlands.

Sivakov coming in now with a decent ride, 18th at 24 seconds down behind Affini. 

Alex Dowsett coming in towards the line now with an impressive time but it won't be challenging for the lead. He's also beaten by his team-mate, Brändle at 17 seconds down.

Dutch national champion and former Giro stage winner, Jos Van Emden (Jumbo-Visma) sets off on the road. If his team-mates rides are anything to go by then the Dutchman should set a good time.

Peter Sagan sets off for Bora-Hansgrohe and he looks to be really going for it. He will hope to be as close as possible to the leaders so he can maybe go for bonuses in the coming stages to maybe take pink for the first time in his career.

Giulio Ciccone sets off for Trek-Segafredo but the focus has to switch to the giant German of Max Walscheid who has gone second at the split just 0.3 seconds behind Affini! 

The Qhubeka-Assos rider looks to have done the opposite to what Marcel Kittel did and gone from being a sprinter to being a time trialer.

Yet another Androni rider caught before the last kilometre. Jefferson Cepeda is Androni's main man for the overall after taking the best young riders jersey at the recent Tour of the Alps, but maybe a focus on the mountains jersey instead?

Jos Van Emden coming to the line. He does now beat either of his team-mates of Cavagna with Jumbo-Visma holding first, second and fourth so far today.

Walscheid looks to have overcooked it a tad and lost time in the second half in 5th finishing nine seconds down on Affini.

Egan Bernal sets off with a big smile on his face. A huge cheer comes from the Colombian fans as he looks to challenge for a second Grand Tour victory.

Simon Yates, the other of the two big favourites alongside Bernal, sets off. Can the British rider put his Giro demons behind him to add the Corsa Rosa to his Vuelta title this year?

Dan Martin has now just set off too. Not a strong rider for the time trial, but he will be looking to limit his loses and perform on the climbs. 

João Almeida is also out on course and looking strong at the split being four seconds down at the halfway point. 

Bernal already losing a few seconds to Almeida at almost 10 seconds down on the leaders at the split and six seconds on Almeida.

Yates looking like he's setting almost an identical ride to Bernal so the two favourites aren't split for the moment.

Dan Martin losing 21 seconds already at the intermediate time check. But that is a manageable gap so far fro the Irishman.

Almeida coming to the line now. This is a very fast time from the Portuguese star. 9-04 for Almeida just seven seconds down beating his team-mate, Cavagna!

Bernal now coming up to the line. He is not going to win today unsurprisingly and comes in at 28 seconds down. Slower than Vlasov and Carthy. Not the best from him.

Yates the next to finish. This is looking similar to Bernal at the moment. Yep, 27 seconds down, just a bit better than Bernal at the line.

Jai Hindley of Team DSM has set off on his ride as he hopes to maybe go one better to last year after his amazing second place last year behind Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers).

Hindley has a brand new special skinsuit for today that is perfectly fit to him and he's 13 seconds down at the time check.

Another team leader, George Bennett of Jumbo-Visma is out on course too. Expecting a faster than expected time here after his brilliant rides by his team-mates.

Emanuel Buchmann of Bora-Hanshgrohe sets off now as well and if he has the form he could be right up there with the very best riders.

And it is not bad from Bennett at the split, around nine seconds down which is the same as Yates and Bernal.

Hindley now coming to the line, he won't challenge Affini obviously and the Australian climber loses time on all the main GC riders with 36 seconds being the gap from him to Affini at the finish.

Bennett loses a little bit less than Hindley but still over 30 seconds for him. Not a great start.

Now then, it's time for Remco Evenepoel to race for the first time since his horrendous crash at Il Lombardia last year. This could really tell us where his form is.

Alberto Bettiol comes in for EF Education-Nippo in 10th at 15 seconds down. Solid ride by the Italian.

Its now time for the big star and local rider! The world time trial champion of Filippo Ganna sets off as he looks to try and take his fifth Giro d'Italia stage win.

Oh my word Ganna is pumping out almost 700 watts! 

Evenepoel almost two seconds dow at the time check but what can Ganna do? He's 1.74 faster than anyone at the time check! 

Meanwhile, Mikel Landa sets off on his ride. We do not expect him to be beating many riders in the GC lets be honest.

Marc Soler comes to the line for Movistar in 52nd but here comes Evenepoel and he has set a fast time, he isn't going to win but the young Belgian looks good! Sixth place nine seconds down.

And here comes Ganna. The world champion is back on form and he has smashed Affini's time by ten seconds! 

Well, we're back on course with Romain Bardet finally riding the Giro. He's here with his new team of DSM but is 18 seconds down at the split. 

Landa coming to the line now and he has lost 48 seconds! An absolute sack full of time compared to the other GC rivals.

Finally seeing the first Alpecin-Fenix rider on the TV with a glimpse of Belgian road race champion and last man off the ramp Dries De Bondt.

Filippo Ganna is going to be the first rider to win the first stage of the Giro two years in a row since Francesco Moser.

Bardet coming in now but he has lost more time than Landa and everyone else involved in the GC.

Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) coming to the line and this is a good ride for him, just pipping Nibali in the standings.

As the final man, De Bondt, crosses the line a long way down, I just had a search to see where the TTer Patrick Bevin came and he finished 44 seconds down. Surprisingly poor ride for him.

But its back to where we left off eight months ago with an Ineos Grenadiers rider in pink. Filippo Ganna takes the win in Turin by 10 seconds over Edoardo Affini and 13 seconds over Tobias Foss, both of Jumbo-Visma.

Check out our full race report after stage one of the Giro d'Italia 2021:

Filippo Ganna obliterates the field to take victory and pink jersey on Giro d'Italia stage one time trial (opens in new tab)

And also take a look at our standings page with all the standings for all the classifications explained:

Giro d'Italia 2021 standings: All the jerseys and classifications explained (opens in new tab)

Here's our analysis from stage one of the Giro d'Italia:

Five talking points from stage one of the Giro d'Italia 2021 (opens in new tab)

Remco Evenepoel on his first race back:

'I just wanted to enjoy it and feel the pain again': Remco Evenepoel impresses in Giro d'Italia time trial after eight-month layoff (opens in new tab)