Great Britain's Simon Yates claimed his first ever Grand Tour individual time trial victory with a dazzling performance in stage two of the 2022 Giro d'Italia.
After Friday's gruelling 195 km opening stage in Hungary, Yates powered to the win in Saturday's 9.2km time trial in Budapest with a time of 11 minutes 50 seconds for Team BikeExchange-Jayco.
Yates took top spot immediately after Tom Dumoulin had entered first place with 11.55 for Jumbo-Visma, with the Dutchman barely able to catch a breath before being knocked off his perch.
Stage one winner Mathieu van der Poel could not usurp Yates at the top as he rounded off the day's action with 11.53, but the Alpecin-Felix rider is still in the maglia rosa ahead of stage three.
However, it was a phenomenal afternoon for Yates, who cut a jubilated figure after posting his maiden time trial win in a Grand Tour event.
"For sure my best win out of two time trials, really happy of course, a little bit unexpected but I'll take them as they come," Yates told Eurosport.
"I just tried to go as fast as possible and have to thank our partners for putting a lot of work into our equipment, and it's paying off. I was never confident, Van der Poel was close as well, but you always have that belief that you would win, and I managed to hang on.
"Today was a 12-minute effort, we still have much more demanding stages in front of us but of course we'll celebrate. My first ever time trial win in a grand tour so of course we'll celebrate, but we also have to look at the bigger picture."
"I have 𝓷𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻 seen a time trial like this!"
— Eurosport (@eurosport) May 7, 2022
No sooner had Tom Dumoulin turned back the clock and taken the lead, than Simon Yates 🇬🇧 passes him to set a mark of 1️⃣1️⃣.5️⃣0️⃣!#Giro | @SimonYatess | @GreenEDGEteam pic.twitter.com/8rVRBQ6uwl
While Van der Poel had to settle for second on the day, the 27-year-old still leads the way in the general classification and is in no mood to relinquish control of the pink jersey anytime soon.
"I would have signed for this before, I think I did a really good TT, the difference between winning and second was pretty good, but I've got myself an extra day in pink so I can be happy with that," Van der Poel added.
"I knew I needed something left for the final climb but overall I can be pretty happy with my performance. It was a pretty hard time trial with some fast corners and easy to make a difference. I hope to take the jersey to Sicily for sure."
However, Dumoulin was visibly frustrated after ending up in third, with Yates immediately dethroning his counterpart in the individual time trial.
"It went alright but I wasn't good enough, I had power but I lost it a little bit on the last climb and blew myself up, but it's a risk I had to take. I was going for the win and didn't succeed. It's disappointing, I felt good and felt strong but obviously not strong enough."
Yates's teammate Matteo Sobrero also ended the day in control of the Young Rider's white jersey, crossing the line with a time of 12.03 to place fourth.
Stage three of the 105th Giro d'Italia sees riders take on another flat stage in Hungary - a 205km effort from Kaposvar to Balatonfured.
