Taylor Phinney (BMC) has drawn first blood at the Giro d'Italia. The American wunderkind powered over a flat, somewhat technical, 8.7-km time trial course in Herning, Denmark to win Stage 1 in 10:26. Geraint Thomas (Sky) finished second at 0:09, and Alex Rasmussen (Garmin) took third at 0:13.

Ramunas Navardauskas (Garmin) set the early standard with a 10:48. The Lithuanian's time led the field for two and a half hours, until Manuele Boaro (Saxo Bank) bettered it with a 10:41. Boaro's time at the time lasted for 25 seconds, until Thomas posted a 10:35. At that point, Phinney was on the road.

Phinney was 0:01 behind Thomas at the intermediate checkpoint. During the second half of his ride, the American picked up the pace to take the win. After Phinney crossed the finish line, other riders remained on the course, but none was able to crack the top five.

The BMC man, a former U23 world time trial champion, had seen this stage as one that he could win. Before the Giro, the American said, "I know that I can potentially change my life on Saturday. I can change my year, my career in a way, and post my biggest result to date in just 10 minutes of racing. That's just extra motivation for me."

For his part, Thomas was satisfied with his ride. The Briton said, "I think I measured it pretty well. I tried to carry my speed through the corners, one or two I could have gone a bit faster but losing by nine seconds I can't blame it on a couple of corners.

"Coming from the track, there's a temptation to try and sprint fast out of those corners but that would obviously take a lot out of me so it was all about judging it correctly which I think I did.

"I definitely tried to keep a bit back for the last 3k and that headwind and then I emptied the tank all the way to the line. It didn't feel amazing but I was obviously going okay and am happy to have been up there.

"There are now another 20 stages to go and at the end of the day it's about the bigger picture - I'll be there in the sprints for Cav and then hopefully finish this race well which will set me up nicely for the Olympics."

In the overall, Phinney leads Thomas by 0:09 and Rasmussen by 0:13. Stage 1, a flat, 206-km ride that will begin and end in Herning, should see a sprinter win. Who will it be? Mark Cavendish (Sky)? Tyler Farrar (Garmin)? Check in at www.roadcycling.com and find out!

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