Tour of the Alps: Geoghegan Hart wins stage 1

Tao Geoghegan Hart (Team Sky) took his first professional win on stage 1 of the Tour of Alps. The 24-year-old was present in a key move created by Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) on the final climb before powering to the win after a small group of GC contenders had reformed on the descent. Alex Aranburu (Caja Rural - Seguros RGA) finished second, with Roland Thalmann (Team Vorarlberg Santic) taking third. Pre-race favourites Chris Froome and Nibali finished safely in the leading group.

Team Sky had numbers in the final with Pavel Sivakov, Kenny Elissonde and Froome and it was Sivakov who set the pace as the leaders approached the final few hundred metres. Geoghegan Hart came around his teammate, and although Aranburu brought himself back into contention, Geoghegan Hart hung on to take the win. The victory gave Geoghegan Hart the first leader's jersey of this year's race.

The key move came when Nibali attacked on the last of two ascents of the Hinterthiersee. The Italian, who came into the race after a block of altitude training, was a relatively lone figure on the climb with few teammates around him when Astana began to increase the pace.

However, the 2018 Milan-San Remo winner used his former team to good effect, allowing them to string the bunch out before attacking with 14km to go with a vicious acceleration. Froome was unable to match the speed of Nibali's change of speed but Team Sky's Sivakov, Geoghegan Hart and Bora-hansgrohe's Rafal Majka were able to make the juncture.

The quartet established a lead of 20 seconds and with a fast descent to the finish it briefly looked as though they might stay away. Bora and Team Sky had been two of the most active teams earlier in the stage. They had caught the day's break just before the final climb, and with riders now up the road they were obviously unwilling to chase. The responsibility therefore fell on Astana, who at least at the numbers to chase. They brought the leaders to within touching distance and with 5km to go Astana's work paid off with a group containing a number of riders from the Kazakh team, as well as Froome regaining contact.

Majka made a late solo bid after Nibali had left the door open after misjudging a corner and the Bora climber was still clear with 1.5km to go. However, Astana and then Team Sky forced a successful chase before Geoghegan Hart punched through to take the win.

The British rider joined Team Sky in 2017 and took significant strides last year with fifth in the Tour of California, where he helped Egan Bernal to the overall win, and a string of important cameos in other stage races. Next month he will again ride at Bernal's side at the Giro d'Italia.

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