Cycling-Gerrans all smiles at last with Giro pink jersey (Reuters)
Australian Simon Gerrans put a miserable start to the season behind him when he snatched the overall leader’s pink jersey at the Giro d’Italia after his Orica-GreenEDGE outfit won the opening team time trial on Saturday. Gerrans, who has suffered four crashes this season, breaking his collarbone and fracturing his elbow, was first across the line as Orica-GreenEDGE clocked a best time of 19 minutes 26 seconds over 17.6 kilometres between San Lorenzo al Mare and San Remo. The Australian team beat Alberto Contador’s Tinkoff-Saxo by seven seconds, with the Spaniard being the best placed of the top contenders after the first stage. Contador is looking to become the first man to achieve a Giro/Tour de France double since the late Marco Pantani of Italy in 1998.