The 106th edition of the Giro opened with a 19-kilometre time trial between Fossacesia Marina and Ortona, where reigning Olympic champion Primoz Roglic finished sixth. The following stages presented no problems for the riders of the yellow-and-black formation.

Roglic crashed in the finale of a rain-soaked fifth stage to Salemo, but the leader quickly managed to rejoin the peloton with the help of his teammates. Two days later, in stage seven, the expected first duel among the classification riders didn’t take place.

On day eight, the peloton faced some steep walls. At the end of the stage, Roglic attacked leader Remco Evenepoel, narrowing the gap between the two of them with 14 seconds. In the second individual time trial of this Giro, the Slovenian finished sixth again after a strong final push. After a forced abandonment by Evenepoel - who tested positive for covid after stage nine - he is second in the general classification on the first rest day, two seconds behind the new leader, Geraint Thomas.