Giro d'Italia | Mads Pedersen wins stage 1 against Wout van Aert; Mikel Landa crashes hard; Gee, Arensman and Martínez lose time

The man to beat for stage 1 of the Giro d'Italia was Mads Pedersen and the Dane did not disappoint. Lidl-Trek did a textbook work and leadout for the Dane, who outsprinted Wout van Aert in the final sprint to be the first rider to put on the pink jersey.

The first breakaway of the race was formed right in the opening kilometers of the stage with Sylvain Moniquet, Alessandro Verre, Alessandro Tonelli and Manuele Tarozzi forming a small group that would lead the race throughout most of the day.

Without much support behind, Team Visma | Lease a Bike took responsibility of the peloton throughout the whole day, not just controlling the gap but effectively pushing hard to make it a selective finale. Moniquet would go on to take the KOM jersey and in the peloton the catch was made right before the penultimate ascent. Lidl-Trek took responsibility, but not too much happened until the final ascent.

This one was also ridden at the pace of Lidl-Trek, mostly Giulio Ciccone who took the front of the group and split the peloton to around 50 riders in the peloton, with no-one daring to attack either on the climb. The pace was not overly high, but nevertheless men like Thymen Arensman, Daniel Martínez and Derek Gee were in trouble and lost contact with the peloton. In the final technical descent more problem took place as several riders crashed - at different moments - in a tricky corner.

Mikel Landa crashed very hard and it seemed as if his Giro likely came to an end in that sidewalk, whilst the likes of Jay Vine and Geoffrey Bouchard also hit the deck. A few riders tried their luck but the finale was very fast and it wasn't possible to open up a gap.

Mathias Vacek led out Mads Pedersen and the American team finished the job exactly as planned, as Pedersen sprinted to victory, beating Wout van Aert to the line by a short margin whilst Orluis Aular finished third.