If Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) showed their Tour de France intentions with a combined attack on the San Luca climb, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) responded with a superb chase to finish.
The Belgian avoided losing time to his two biggest rivals, gained 21 seconds on many others and moved into the white best young rider jersey.
Evenepoel is second to Pogačar on the same time in the Tour de France general classification standings. Only stage placings put Pogačar in the yellow jersey and Evenepoel in white, with Pogačar admitting he left a gap at the finish to avoid pulling on the yellow jersey so early in the race.
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Pogačar perhaps wanted to give a poisoned chalice to Evenepoel but the young Belgian was happy to be close but not with the weight of the race on his shoulders.
"Pogačar didn't look very happy with that yellow jersey. Especially for him, it was not the intention to get yellow in those first days," Evenepoel explained post-stage.
If Evenepoel finishes two places ahead of Pogačar on stage 3 to Turin, he can take the yellow jersey. A tussle for intermediate time bonuses could also see a leadership change, with Vingegaard and Carapaz also on the same time, six seconds ahead of stage 1 winner Romain Bardet and 21 seconds ahead of the other GC riders, including Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
"Then I'll stay behind," Evenepoel joked, perhaps like Pogačar, keen to avoid taking the race lead so early in the Tour de France.
"We'll see. If it's yellow, all the better. If it's not yellow, then so be it."
Everything at the Tour de France is new for Evenepoel and he was happy to talk about his race while showing off the white jersey.
"I'm feeling happy. It's a nice experience here," he said. "I think today was more about positioning, fighting for the position. The guys did a very good job, we always stayed out of trouble and out of the crashes as well.
"I was right behind Pogačar when he attacked but my legs were just full because I'd had to jump from a second group just before his attack, otherwise I might have been able to come along. But in the end, it all turned out well and I finished with Pogačar and Vingegaard, that's important. The others finished 21 seconds behind. It's better to be in front and gain than to be behind."
Evenepol closed the gap to Pogačar and Vingegaard with Carapaz but was keen to point out he did most of the work, diving down the descent and time trialling along the city street of Bologna.
"I always saw them working hard but, I don't think it was ever more than 10 seconds down," he said.
"I had to do most of the work alone. I think Richard came through one time only. So yeah, it was thanks to me that we came back."
Evenepoel will wear the white jersey during Monday's third stage from Piacenza to Turin, where the sprinters are expected to dominate. The next big test will be during Tuesday's mountain stage to Valloire, with the climb of the Col du Galibier and the fast mountain descent to the finish.
"The legs are good, but not super. I'm looking for my best shape, and trying to grow to 100-105%," Evenepoel said, earlier confirming to French television that he had lost 2.5kg since the Critérium du Dauphiné.
"I'm happy with today's effort. It wasn't my best day on the bike, that's for sure. But I didn't lose any time to the two big favourites. That's the positive thing about today. Now we race on."
