Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), after scouting the time trial in Palermo, the opening race of this year's Giro d'Italia, said it couldn't have been worse for him. But Yates' pessimism was clearly misplaced, as he minimized the gap to overall contender Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers).

After a brief break in Palermo on Saturday, Yates had a 26-second gap on the Welshman. However, this was far lighter than the time lost by other GC riders, including Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo), who lost more than a minute from Tomas and still in the early stages of the race.

Yates, who has had solid results in time trials, and even the occasional shocking race, such as last year's Giro d'Italia in San Marino, was cautious about the outcome this time. He noted, "This is 15km, and the race is long. But it would be nice to get off to a good start."

"I did what I could, but it wasn't my best course and it was tricky. There was a lot of wind, and that's more difficult than how much you can score."

"The problem is the boulevards. That's when there are really big gusts of wind and that's where it messes you up," Yates added about the critical middle section of the course.

Asked if the course was as dangerous as the fallen Victor Kampenaerts (NTT Pro Cycling) said, Yates gave a fair answer, claiming that there were some dangers, but that all riders had to overcome them at some point, as much as possible.

"We all scouted it out. There was slippery oil, and I slipped," Yates said. 'It's a risk/reward situation. This was his [Kampenaerts'] one shot to win the Giro jersey. Sometimes you take risks, sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. We are all racing on the same course, so that's the way it is."

From Yates' perspective, it was the choice to "commit or not to commit to skiing," the time trial aerobars, that affected the different results the racers produced more than the use of disc wheels in the windy conditions.

"As I said before, if you don't want to take the risk and use slower wheels, be my guest. It's not the disc wheels that are the problem, it's handling the skis that is the most dangerous. You don't have the leverage that you do when you're on the hood or on the drop." [Many riders had 60 chainrings on, but if you push one of them, it's 110 rpm.

"I like to use the same equipment for years so I know how the bike feels.

Judging by Yates' performance, his strategy proved to be exactly right. For the Briton, he will be confident of his chances to strike back at the Giro GC contenders on Monday when he arrives in Etna.