Vincenzo Nibali's reputation in the Giro d'Italia has been built primarily on feats of endurance in the third week.

No wonder Nibali looked almost surprised after finishing 12th in Saturday's stage 2 time trial in Budapest; the 37-year-old did not expect to handle the repeated accelerations smoothly over the 9.2km course, but won! He closed the gap to Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco) to 19 seconds, and increased the time gap to the overall contenders.

"It was definitely not a stage for me. It was a very explosive stage and I tried to protect myself. I think a simpler time trial would have suited me better than a time trial like this, where you have to accelerate over and over again. But when I saw the finish time, I knew I had done a good time trial.

Nibali was in fourth place, five seconds behind Yates, at the time check in the flat early 8km. On the 1.3 km climb to the finish line on the Buda hill, he conceded another second and a place, but still gained an early lead on Richard Karapaz (Ineos) and others who struggled in the final stages of the race.

"[General director Stefano Sportif] Zanini told me from the car that "the speed is good." "There was a painted zebra zone, so the corners were quite slippery. I tried to go through them as fast as possible without taking too many risks."

In the overall standings, Nibali is in 12th place overall, 30 seconds behind Mathieu van der Pol (Alpecin Phoenix) and 19 seconds behind Yates. Next week's Giro will feature a summit finish on the summit of Mount Etna on stage 4.

Before the start of the Giro, Nibali suggested that Miguel Angel Lopez would have a free role on the Astana Cazacustan team for the final overall win. The Colombian had a solid run here, limiting his loss to 42 seconds, but Nibali noted that speculation about his role was moot at this early stage.

"Will he be a stage contender or run for Lopez? After that, we'll see what happens," Nibali said.

"It's only the second stage.

"In the past, I've always done my best in the third week. That's when everyone gets tired and the endurance qualities come out. So I'm confident, but we'll have to see what happens after this. Look, you never know what's going to happen here."