Simon Yates kicked off his Giro d’Italia challenge with a steady outing in the race’s opening time trial in Turin, where the local hope Filippo Ganna rode off with the pink jersey. Yates is among the favourites for the general classification and finished 37 seconds off the lead for Team BikeExchange, a creditable showing that places him narrowly in front of Egan Bernal and Vincenzo Nibali. “It was a day to blow the cobwebs out, a tough little opener but now we have started so I am looking forward to the rest of the race,” he said. “We have two easier days now, then we start getting the harder terrain where hopefully I can do my thing.” Ganna was the standout on the 8.6km leg along the Po river with a time of 8mins 48 seconds for Ineos Grenadiers, repeating his performance in last year’s edition, when he began with a win and went on to take three more stages. The reigning time trial world champion held off the challenge of the Jumbo Visma pair Edoardo Affini and outside GC candidate Tobias Foss, who is 13 seconds back. Joao Almeida is also promisingly placed 17 seconds off the lead. “It was a lot of time waiting in the hot seat at the finish but now I’m here and really happy,” said Ganna. “I said:‘Filippo, just go full gas, listen to the people on the road, and if they say your name you can go really fast’.” Alex Dowsett, the six-times British time trial champion, came 14th while Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel , of Deceuninck Quick-Step, who was making his comeback to competitive cycling more than eight months after serious injuries in a freak crash at the Giro di Lombardia, secured an encouraging top-10 finish, 18 seconds off the pace. The 21-year-old, who won all four of the stage races he started last season, is making his Grand Tour debut, gunning for the general classification. Among the other overall contenders, Russian Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana–Premier Tech, 11th) clocked 9:12, faring better than Ineos’s 2019 Tour de France champion Bernal of Colombia (40th, 9:26), Yates (Team BikeExchange, 37th, 9:25) and double Giro champion and local favourite Nibali (Trek–Segafredo, 50th, 9:28), who is back to racing after recovering from a wrist injury that required surgery. Last year’s runner-up, Jai Hindley of Australia, was down in 73rd with a time of 9:33. Sunday’s second stage is a 176km ride from Stupinigi to Novara.