Sawt Falasteen - Tarling wins Giro time trial in Tirana, Roglic in pink

In the overall standings, pre-race favourite and 2023 Giro champion Primoz Roglic grabbed the coveted pink jersey from Friday's stage winner Mads Pedersen, who was an agonising two seconds short of clinging on.

The 21-year old Tarling of Ineos is a time-trial specialist and finished the 13.7km circuit in 16min 07sec, 1sec faster than Roglic and 3sec faster than Jay Vine.

Belgian star Wout van Aert had been expected to win this stage and claim the pink pullover but never put the hammer down as he struggles to overcome a stomach bug.

Of the main overall contenders most of them finished over 30sec down on Roglic, but with a relentless stream of hilly and mountain stages along the 3400km 21-day race, the Slovenian won't be getting excited yet.

The world and Olympic time-trial champion Remco Evenepoel is absent from this Giro, as are two other handy time trial riders Filippo Ganna and Tadej Pogacar.

Albania is hosting the first three days of the 2025 Giro with the Balkan nation enjoying a tourism boom.

Sunday's third stage at Valona will showcase some of Albania's prettiest coastline, while the stage itself is largely flat and will favour the sprinters who were dropped in the hills Friday, and who suffered through Saturday's individual effort.

I.Matar--SF-PST