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The 2020 Giro d'Italia kicks off today with a short and fast opening time trial on stage one. The riders will take on a 15.1km course which predominantly downhill from Monreale to Palermo on the island of Sicily.
There are of course the pure time triallists in the field looking for a stage win and stint in the pink jersey. World champion Filippo Ganna will fancy his chances at a home victory on stage one, while his Ineos team-mate Rohan Dennis will also be in contention for the win.
>>> Giro d'Italia 2020: Rider start times for the opening stage one time trial
The Ineos Grenadiers will be ore concerned at placing Geraint Thomas highly in the opening time trial, as he hopes to take an early advantage over his GC rivals who won't thrive on a course such as this. Fellow Briton Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) will just be hoping to minimise his losses in the time trial, as will the likes of Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), and Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo). Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) is a handy time triallist and will be hoping to have a good opening ride after not racing since crashing at the Critérium du Dauphiné in August.
Elsewhere we'll see the likes of Victor Campenaerts (NTT), Alex Dowsett (Israel Start-Up Nation), Edoardo Affini (Mitchelton-Scott), and Jos van Emden (Jumbo-Visma) aiming to be in the mix for the stage victory.
The first rider off the ramp will Dowsett at 13.15 local time, with Rafał Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) the last at 16.10.
The course starts uphill before dropping down for a long descent, with riders in recon hitting top speeds of 100km/h in what should be a fast race.
The 2020 Giro d'Italia continues for 21 stages, ending in Milan on October 25, with a final time trial.
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