British rider Simon Yates of Bike Exchange won stage 2 of the Giro d’Italia on Saturday, crossing the Budapest finish line of the 9.2km time-trial 03sec faster than Mathieu van der Poel, who retained the overall lead, while Tom Dumoulin was third.
The Dutch maverick Van der Poel retains the lead in the overall standings by 11 seconds from Yates while the 2017 champion Dumoulin is third at 16sec after the inner-city run, the second of three stages in Hungary before a switch to Italy.
Yates timed 9min 50sec round the picture-postcard run around the monuments and sights of the city with its Gothic parliament, Danube river and thermal baths. The circuit, with its tight bends and varying sur-faces and gradients, made the stage a test of bike-handling skills, although the forecast rain held off.
Third in the Giro last year Yates has never been known for time-trialling, but with only 26km of the discipline on the 2022 route the mountains are the more important terrain.
“We have worked hard on the time-trial bike and wanted to go as fast as possible here,” Yates said who flew over the cobbled section where others appeared to bounce around.—APP
