High winds blowing from the coast in Cagliari affected the way the Giro d’Italia Donne opening time trial was raced. Having seen in the weather forecast that the wind would be higher as the day wore on, many teams opted to send their protected GC riders down the ramp earlier in the day.
Track rider and time trial specialist Georgia Baker (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) was the 16th rider to set off on the 4.7km course and set a top time that would hold until her teammate, Kristen Faulkner, crossed the line with the eventual winning time of 5:45.
Pre-race favourite Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) was among the first riders to go, as were Italian Trek-Segafredo teammates Elisa Longo Borghini and Elisa Balsamo. Newly-crowned Dutch national champion Riejanne Markus and Trek-Segafredo’s Lucinda Brand and Leah Thomas, the US national champion, were also within the first 100 riders to start – all achieved top-10 results.
With the exception of Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx), none of the riders who set off down the ramp after 14:17 local time made it into the top 10.
Riders could be seen battling a very strong cross-head wind coming into the finish line as shots of the coastline on live coverage showed trees and bushes buffeted by the strong gusts.
Despite the windy conditions, however, none of the pre-race GC contenders lost any significant time to their rivals on the short time trial course and the overall competition remains an open one going into Friday’s 106.5km rolling stage from Villasimius to Tortolì.
