Simon Yates: "We’ll enjoy today, but I think we need to look at the bigger picture"

Simon Yates came as a main favourite for the Giro d'Italia, but despite some past impressive performances in the time-trials, surely not even the Team BikeExchange - Jayco rider expected to come out of the second stage victorious.

“I just tried to go as fast as possible, I have to thank our partners, Giant and Cadex, we put a lot of work into our equipment this year, and of course it’s paying off," Yates told in a post-race interview. The technical 9.2-kilometer time-trial was not favourable for the specialists, and a hilltop near the end gave the climbers a little edge towards the end.

I was never confident, Van der Poel was close as well, but of course you always have that belief that you can win, and eventually I managed to hang on," Yates added. Not in the pink jersey, but right after in second place is the ideal place for Yates to enter the mountains which will come as soon as Tuesday. There is where the race will be decided, however this win came as a boost and will see Yates enter on the right foot.

"Today was a 12-minute effort, we still have some much more demanding stages in front of us. But of course, we will celebrate today, it’s one of only two time trials I have ever won and my first ever in a Grand Tour, so we’ll enjoy today, but I think we need to look at the bigger picture," he concluded.

Tomorrow should see the GC rider have a calmer day, before the sprint finale which should be tense as the speeds will be quite high.