After Mathieu Van der Pol's (Alpecin Phoenix) super-expected victory in the opening stage of the Giro d'Italia on Friday, Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco) won the time trial on Saturday for the second time in his career, while at the same time delivering the enemy The biggest surprise of recent years came in the form of a major psychological blow to the

One indication of the magnitude of the surprise of Yates' victory was that Giro journalists swarmed the finish enclosure for Tom Dumoulin's (Jumbo-Visma) first comment after the Dutchman set the provisional best time of the stage.

In the midst of this flurry, Yates, who finished only a few seconds behind, was jogging down the narrow cobblestone lane that would become the finish straight with only one team press and camera crew, actually pushing the Dutchman out of first place for the day by five seconds, They all failed to notice.

Nor was this a minimal victory. With only 9.2 km to go, Yates was three seconds ahead of race leader Mathieu van der Pol (Alpecin Phoenix). He was also 15 seconds ahead of rival Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) and 28 seconds ahead of Richard Carapas (Ineos Grenadiers).

At this stage, and with Yates' customary mountain race coming up, this is not a small gap.

Yates has won just two time trials (the other was Paris-Nice a few years ago), but it goes without saying that Yates later described his third win of the season and his victory on stage 5 of the Giro as "the best time trial ever."

"It was a bit unexpected, that's for sure.

As for his opponent, Yates cited Giro leader Van der Pol as a strong pre-race contender.

"It was a very good TT for him. It's technical, it's short, there's a climb at the end, and he's very explosive. It goes without saying how good he is. Especially with the form he showed yesterday [Friday]."

Asked directly at the winner's press conference what percentage he had set for his win percentage before rolling down the starting slope of the Heroes Square time trial, Yates gave another answer that showed how few people were expecting this win.

"I don't put a percentage," Yates replied. I have to thank my partners, Giant and Cadex, for their support.

Yates cited retired time trial expert Marco Pinotti as the architect of his success, saying: "He put in a lot of work for this, and I'm very grateful.

In the long run, Yates downplayed the importance of the victory, saying: "Today we won by about 12 minutes. There are still tough stages ahead. Etna (stage 4) is an hour's climb."

As the first British TT stage winner at the Giro since Alex Doucet in 2013, Yates' caution is perhaps understandable; in 2018, he rode strongly early on and held the lead for nearly two weeks before suffering a terrible crack just before the finish .

"So of course I celebrate today--it's one of only two time trials I've won in my career, and I'm ecstatic that I gained time and didn't lose one--but I think I need to look at the bigger picture," he said.

"It's a different race from here.