Mikkel Bjarg of UAE Team Emirates took an impressive third place finish in Sunday's Giro d'Italia stage 9, a mountainous stage from San Salvo to Roccaraso that included a summit finish on Allemogna The 21-year-old Danish time trial specialist was "very proud" of his performance and "super happy" with his performance, left "proud" and "super-satisfied" with his performance, having made the most of his chances for a stage win.

Curiously, the Giro already seems suited to TT specialists, and in addition to the opening stage against the clock, Ineos Grenadier's Filippo Ganna won the road stage, and on stage 8 former Hour Record holder Alex Dowsett (Israel Startup Nation) took the road stage win.

Danish TT specialist Bjarg (three-time under-23 time trial world champion, stepping up to the World Tour level this season with UAE Team Emirates) was in the lead group in the original plan and was joined by 22-year-old He admitted that his original plan was to be in the lead group and help his teammate Brandon McNulty, a 22-year-old who also joined the UAE team this year, on the final climb.

However, Bjarg was only a late addition to the day's main group and had to use his time trial skills to close the gap to the seven-man breakaway by several minutes.

Then only stage winner Ruben Guerreiro (EF Pro Cycling) was able to catch the attack of Ineos Grenadiers' Jonathan Castroviejo with 6km to go, but Bjerg finished in third place, less than a minute behind.

"I am really proud of my performance today. The plan was to get in front of the peloton so that Brandon could jump over in the final." [I managed to bridge the breakaway group and eventually got there and got the go-ahead from team car Matosin [team manager Jocsen Fernandez] to get the result. I think we got our chance today and we made the most of it.

He also finished third in the time trial stage of the Giro's opening race in Palermo, behind Ganna and current overall leader Joao Almeida (Detunink-Quick Step).