TIRANA: Welshman Joshua Tarling (INEOS Grenadiers) set a time-trial pace even race favourite Primoz Roglic, could not match to win stage two of the Giro d’Italia by one second on Saturday.

Tarling secured his first Grand Tour stage victory after the 21-year-old Briton had a nervous wait to see Roglic come so close, but the Slovenian had to settle for second place with the consolation of taking over the leader’s pink jersey.

Australian Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) had set the early pace but came in third, three second behind Tarling in the short 13.7km individual time-trial in Tirana.

“To win today is definitely exceptional,” Tarling said.

Tarling, racing only his second Grand Tour having failed to finish last year’s Vuelta A Espana, became the youngest rider to win a Giro time-trial.

Vine crashed on Friday’s opening stage, but took the lead from Italian Edoardo Affini, before Tarling showed his time-trial prowess.

Tarling came third in the 2023 world road time-trial and, racing his first Giro, had to sit and watch as the main contenders attempted to steal the win.

“Waiting for the other riders to complete the course was hard too, I don’t want to do it again,” Tarling said. “It was long. I was afraid of everyone among the favourites.”

All eyes were on 2023 winner Roglic, and with reigning champion Tadej Pogacar deciding to focus on the Tour de France, the 35-year-old Slovenian is expected to become the oldest ever Giro winner.

Roglic, however, fell short, and Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) was well off the pace early in his ride. Van Aert beat Tarling to the bronze medal at last year’s Olympic Games.

Belgian star Wout van Aert had been expected to win this stage and claim the pink pullover but never put the hammer down as he struggles to overcome a stomach bug.

Opening stage winner Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) was last to go and despite pushing hard to the end, the Dane finished 12 seconds down in seventh place and lost the overall lead to Roglic by one second.

Of the main overall contenders most of them finished over 30sec down on Roglic, but with a relentless stream of hilly and mountain stages along the 3400km 21-day race, the Slovenian won’t be getting excited yet.

Roglic leads his key rival Team UAE’s Juan Ayuso by 16sec, as the 22-year-old Spaniard attempts to defend the title his team won with Pogacar in 2024.

Italian home hope Antonio Tiberi is 25sec down, Simon Yates of Visma is at 33sec and his twin brother Adam Yates of UAE is at 36sec.

Two former South American winners of the Giro Richard Carapaz of American outfit EF is 37sec done on Roglic and Colombian Egan Bernal is at 48.

Albania is hosting the first three days of the 2025 Giro with the Balkan nation enjoying a tourism boom.

Sunday’s stage three is the last time the riders will tackle the Albanian roads in this year’s Giro, with a 160km ride that starts and finishes in Valona and will showcase some of the country’s prettiest coastline.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2025