Giro d'Italia 2022 stage 1 highlights - Video

It was an action packed finale to the opening stage of the Giro d'Italia in Hungary, which ended with a tight battle to the line in the uphill sprint between Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert).

Van der Poel claimed the first pink jersey of the 2022 Giro d'Italia in the two-way battle, which looked set to be a three-way contest before Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) crashed within sight of the line.

Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) took third, ahead of Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost), in the stage which ended at the hilltop fort at Visegrád with a final 5.5km at 4.2 per cent.

GC contenders Wilco Kelderman (Bora-Hansgrohe), Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) took fifth to seventh in the 195km stage from Budapest, opening a four second gap on many rivals after a split occurred amid the chaos of the climb and crashes.

Watch the highlights of the opening stage above.

Thank you for reading 5 articles in the past 30 days*

Join now for unlimited access

Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

*Read any 5 articles for free in each 30-day period, this automatically resets

After your trial you will be billed £4.99 $7.99 €5.99 per month, cancel anytime. Or sign up for one year for just £49 $79 €59

Join now for unlimited access

Try your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

Australia Editor

Simone is a degree-qualified journalist that has accumulated decades of wide-ranging experience while working across a variety of leading media organisations. She joined Cyclingnews as a Production Editor at the start of the 2021 season and has now moved into the role of Australia Editor. Previously she worked as a freelance writer, Australian Editor at Ella CyclingTips and as a correspondent for Reuters and Bloomberg. Cycling was initially purely a leisure pursuit for Simone, who started out as a business journalist, but in 2015 her career focus also shifted to the sport.