Maxime Bouet (Ag2r) won the opening road stage of the Giro del Trentino in Italy on Tuesday morning.
Bouet had been part of an eight-rider escape group that managed to keep the bunch at bay over the short 128-kilometre morning road stage.
Josef Cerny (CCC Polsat) placed second on the stage at two seconds, with Michael Rodriguez (Colombia) in third at four seconds.
The peloton eventually arrived just under seven minutes behind Bouet – an advantage that will be tough to overhaul.
The riders now face a 14-1-kilometre team time trial this afternoon. The UCI 2.HC-ranked race concludes on Friday with a testing mountain-top finish.