In picture-perfect conditions on Sardinia, a six-man break wasted little time getting themselves up the road, with Eritrean champion Daniel Teklehaimanot (Dimension Data) and Albanian champion Eugert Zhupa (Wilier Triestina-Selle Italia) among them.

Cesare Benedetti (Bora-hansgrohe), Poland’s Marcin Bialoblocki (CCC Sprandi Polowice), Pavel Brutt (Gazprom-RusVelo) and Mirco Maestri (Bardiani-CSF) completed the sextet, who soon found themselves seven minutes clear.

Benedetti set about grabbing the first mountain points of this year’s Giro on the Multeddu climb, before beating Teklehaimanot on the Trinita d’Agultu to guarantee he would pull on the first climber’s jersey of this year’s race.

The acceleration on the second climb was enough to drop Maestri, but the other five remained up the road and the gap was down to 2’32” when Zhupa beat Teklehaimanot at the first intermediate sprint.

The incident caused the peloton to become stretched out on the technical run-in to the final sprint, with small gaps all over the road.

It was Postlberger’s gap at the front which proved most telling, however, as the finish line drew closer and closer and it suddenly became apparent he was not going to be caught.

The Austrian – on his Giro debut – celebrated his unlikely victory, and will roll out for stage two in the maglia rosa as a result.

Most of the GC contenders came home safely, meanwhile – though Steven Kruijswijk lost 13 seconds after finding himself behind one of the splits that formed with the crash.

Giro d’Italia 2017: stage one – result

1) Lukas Postlberger (AUT) – Bora-hansgrohe – 5.13.35hrs
2) Caleb Ewan (AUS) – Orica-Scott – ST
3) Andre Greipel (GER) – Lotto-Soudal
4) Giacomo Nizzolo (ITA) – Trek-Segafredo
5) Sacha Modolo (ITA) – UAE Team Emirates
6) Kristian Sbaragli (ITA) – Dimension Data
7) Jasper Stuyven (BEL) – Trek-Segafredo
8) Ryan Gibbons (RSA) – Dimension Data
9) Sam Bennett (IRL) – Bora-hansgrohe
10) Phil Bauhaus (GER) – Team Sunweb

General classification

1) Lukas Postlberger (AUT) – Bora-hansgrohe – 5.13.25hrs
2) Caleb Ewan (AUS) – Orica-Scott +4″
3) Andre Greipel (GER) – Lotto-Soudal +6″
4) Pavel Brutt (RUS) – Gazprom-RusVelo +8″
5) Giacomo Nizzolo (ITA) – Trek-Segafredo +10″
6) Sacha Modolo (ITA) – UAE Team Emirates
7) Kristian Sbaragli (ITA) – Dimension Data
8) Jasper Stuyven (BEL) – Trek-Segafredo
9) Ryan Gibbons (RSA) – Dimension Data
10) Sam Bennett (IRL) – Bora-hansgrohe