Two weeks after Team Ineos Grenadiers' disastrous loss in their bid for an eighth Tour de France victory, the Brits could not have had a better start to this year's Giro d'Italia, with Flippo Ganna taking the pink leader's jersey and Geraint Thomas well ahead of most of his rivals. The British riders could not have asked for a better start to this year's Giro d'Italia.

Thomas, who recently finished fourth in the UCI Road World Championships time trial and won the Tour de France opening 14km time trial in Cologne three years ago, was widely expected to be the overall class rider to benefit most from the race against the clock in the Giro opener in Palermo

That prediction was 100% accurate, with Thomas finishing in fourth place. However, with the notable exception of Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), who only lost 26 seconds, the gap to the rest of the overall contenders was enough to elevate Thomas' position to the man to beat at the 2020 Giro d'Italia.

In addition to Yates, he was 57 seconds ahead of Alexander Brasov (Astana ProTeam), 1:05 ahead of Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb), 1:06 ahead of Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo), 1:06 ahead of Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) 21 seconds, and 1:24 to Jakob Fuglsang (Astana ProTeam), the gap between Thomas and the rest of the pre-race favorites is widening. The look on Rafal Mayka's (Bora-Hansgrohe) face as he crossed the finish line last said it all.

It was before most of the other leading riders had crossed the finish line, but he was one second short of Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-Quickstep).

"The wind was strong, but I was comfortable on the bars and pretty solid.

"I probably attacked too much. I was a little too aggressive from the beginning. I lost a little bit of legs in the last two kilometers. But I made sure I emptied the tank."

As encouraging as this result is, it is little consolation to think that his rivals could have done better for the Welsh veteran. According to Thomas, he was cautious in the corners.

The speed of the mostly downhill, non-technical course was, as Thomas, who knows the feeling of velodrome racing better than most of his rivals, put it, "like a chase on a track."

This time trial was also Thomas' fastest time trial ever. I've never gone as fast as this."

Thomas' Giro d'Italia got off to an ideal start.

With Ganna in the lead, Ineos Grenadiers' strategy was clear. They can protect the GC interests of Italian racers Maria Rosa and Thomas at the same time. The road to Milan is a long, long one. But for Thomas, it was exactly the start he wanted.