Giro d'Italia Daily - Stage 1 TT

Today's stage: A short, flat 8.7 km time trial in Denmark to kick of the Giro d'Italia

Who won today's stage? Taylor Phinney (BMC) won the biggest race of his young career thus far and it doubles as the first thing BMC has won all season. Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) was second and Alex Rasmussen (Garmin-Barracuda) was 3^rd riding in his home country.

What matters in the GC race? We have a Giro that, for the most part, is even more allergic to time trials than usual. The generally accepted GC contenders are Michele Scarponi (Lampre, 135^th place), Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale, 35^th place), Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha, 44^th place), Frank Schleck (Radio Shack-Nissan-Trek, 108^th place) and Roman Krueziger (Astana, 29^th place). Given those results, it's obvious what this Giro will be about (mountains, always mountains) unless darkhorse Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Barricuda, 17^th place) has better climbing legs than expected.

What matters in the other competitions? Nothing so far. Phinney qualifies for the young riders category too so he leads everything right now.

Biggest surprise: Nothing. Many in the cycling world thought Phinney, Thomas and Rasmussen were all possible stage winners. Them finishing on the podium is no shock.

Biggest disappointment: Scarponi's ride in the pink jersey was terrible. After being presented with last year's pink jersey after Alberto Contador was disqualified, Scarponi got the honor of starting in the pink jersey and starting last. He then turned in a worse time than Frank Schleck. The same Frank Schleck who despises time trials and also didn't know he was racing the Giro until teammate Jakob Fuglsang was injured a week ago.

Other items of note: The sprinters will not be happy. For the most part these first stage time trials are shorter and leave them close enough to take the overall lead with time bonuses. Given the length though, the sprinters are a bit too far back for that to happen as the longer a time trial gets, the better the specialists in the discipline do.

What is coming tomorrow? Long, boring, dull sprint day. Maybe crosswinds will play a role, but barring that, it will be a long processional that catches the breakaway 15 km before the finish and finishes in a bunch sprint, likely to be won by either Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) or Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Barracuda).