Canyon-SRAM win Giro Rosa TTT

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Canyon-SRAM conquered the difficult team time trial opening the Giro d'Italia Internazionale Femminile, the only team to cover the 18 kilometers in under 32 minutes. Katarzyna Niewiadoma led the way across the finish line to take the leader's jersey, ahead of teammates Hannah Barnes and Omer Shapira.

The six-woman team of Alena Amialiusik, Niewiadoma, Barnes and Shapira finished in a time of 31:41, with Tiffany Cromwell and Alexis Ryan trailing in later. Bigla Pro Cycling was second, 24 seconds back at 32:04, with CCC-Liv third, at 32:26.

"It is so beautiful to win a TTT! It’s a big effort from every single person on the team! I’m not talking only about riders, but also the staff! We did our best! We believed that we can achieve something special, stopped complaining, and voila we won the stage," Niewiadoma said.

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"I would like if I could say that I wasn’t suffering in the stage, but we set a hard pace from the start, and it was never easy. We took a lot of care and were supporting each other throughout the entire course! I’m very proud of my team and more than happy to wear the first maglia rosa!"

There were significant gaps on the day. Nine teams finished with two minutes of the winners, but from there the gaps shot up to over five minutes. Top favourite for the overall title Anna van der Breggen (Boels Dolmans) goes into the next stage just over one minute down, while Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) is only three seconds up on her rival. Three-time winner Marianne Vos (CCC-Liv) lies only 45 seconds down.

"It was a hard and hot day and on top of this we had a few mechanicals. A bit frustrating but we have to move on and keep positive - it's the first stage and lots to come," said Elisa Longo Borghini, whose Trek-Segafredo Women team finished 1:07 down in sixth place.

The teams took off at three minute intervals for the difficult 18 kilometers, which included a climb topping out at 6 km, a descent, and then a gradual climb to the finish. The climbing was enough that several teams decided to go on road bikes rather than time trial bikes on this hot day.

Conceria Zabria-Fanini was the first off at 14:30. They set the mark at the finish with a time of 37:28, for an average speed of 28.825 kph. The Top Girls Fassa Bortolo team lived up to their name and topped that time, and the finishing time then toppled with each team coming in.

Servetto-Piumate-Beltrami TSA were twice struck by bad luck. The six-woman team lost two riders before the halfway mark, leaving them with only the necessary four to finish. A mechanical for one of the riders then forced the team to wait, seeing them lose further time, crossing the line with a time of 35:28.

Bigla was the first to crack the 33 minute mark at 32:48, but their lead wasn't to last. Canyon-SRAM blasted through 31:41, and that time held up to take the win.

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