Van der Poel sprints to victory to win first stage of Giro d'Italia

BUDAPEST : Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin-Fenix won the first stage of the Giro d'Italia on Friday, beating Biniam Girmay on the final sprint to claim victory on the a 195-km flat ride from Budapest to Visegrad.

In a stage marred by crashes, Dutchman Van der Poel was neck-and-neck with Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert's Girmay but timed his attack to perfection to cross the line first with a time of four hours, 35 minutes and 28 seconds to take the Maglia Rosa.

Pello Bilbao of Bahrain Victorious was third while Lotto Soudal's Caleb Ewan crashed at the final turn when he made contact with Girmay.