The start times for the stage 1 time trial that opens the 2023 Giro d'Italia have been confirmed, with pre-race favourites Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) setting off just a minute apart late on Saturday afternoon.
The Giro gets underway on Saturday with a 19.6km time trial from the Fossacesia Marina up the Adriatic coast to Ortona, with a gentle inland climb in the final 3km.
The race will get underway at 13:50 local time (CET), with Laurens Huys of Intermarché-Circus-Wanty the first rider down the ramp. The riders set off at intervals of one minute, all the way through to the last starter, Stefano Oldani of Alpecin-Deceuninck, at 16:45.
Many of the big names have opted for a later start, and there'll be a mouthwatering section of the race where Evenepoel and Roglič, plus Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) and Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), are all on the course at the same time.
Evenepoel gets going at 16:34, followed directly by Roglič, Küng, Ganna, and then - just to add to the mix - another overall contender in Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe).
Those riders are all setting off as the last of their team's riders, although there is no dramatic change of conditions predicted during the three hours of the race.
"The weather forecasts are practically the same all day long. At the end of the day the wind can still shift a bit and it may be that it has a little more advantage, so Remco starts last in the team," said Soudal-QuickStep director Geert Van Bondt.
Ganna, the Hour Record holder, gets the final start for Ineos Grenadiers, over and above any of their general classification riders. Geraint Thomas is the latest starter among them, at 16:15, preceded by Tao Geoghegan hart at 15:53, Thymen Arensman at 15:31, and Pavel Sivakov at 15:09.
Over at UAE Team Emirates, Joao Almeida is off at 16:08, ahead of Jay Vine at 15:46, and Brandon McNulty at 15:24. At Bahrain Victorious it's Jack Haig at 15:45 then Damiano Caruso at 16:07. However, both those teams have chosen a non-GC rider as their last man.
Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost) is the first of the main GC candidates to start at 15:13, followed by his teammate Rigoberto Urán at 15:35.
The early benchmark times look set to come from Josef Cerny (Soudal-QuickStep), the recent prologue winner at the Tour de Romandie, and Rohan Dennis (Jumbo-Visma), the two-time time trial world champion. They set off a minute apart at 14:22.
The favourites, however, all set off in one cluster, with Evenepoel, Roglič, Küng, and Ganna the most likely to claim the first pink jersey of the race. Evenepoel and Roglič are then set to duel throughout the race, and the time won and lost on Saturday will set the tone for the overall battle at the 2023 Giro.
