Domenico Pozzovivo seemed to be on his way to repeating his fantastic performance from last year's Vuelta a Espana when he demolished the opposition at the first time check in today's Giro d'Italia time trial. Having been the only rider to use a normal road bike, however, he lost a lot of time in the second part and dropped to ninth at the finish.

In the 2013 Vuelta a Espana, Domenico Pozzovivo did the time trial of his life when he finished a surprise third behind Tony Martin and Fabian Cancellara on a hilly course in Spain. Today's rolling course for the stage 12 time trial in the Giro d'Italia seemed to suit the Italin equally well and so many were curious to see how the in-form Italian would fare in Barolo.

Pozzovivo came out with all guns blazing, being a lot faster than anyone else at the first time check. The first section, however, was all uphill and as the Ag2r leader had been the only one of the GC riders to use a normal road bike, he benefited from his choice in the early part.

Pozzovivo took a very cautious approach to the subsequent descent and lost more than a minute to most of his rivals in the second section. He finally bounced back with a solid ride on the final climbs to take 9th and keep his fourth place on GC.

The Ag2r rider was moderately satisfied with his ride and was especially encouraged by his good feelings on the climbs.

"I think I did a solid time trial," he told Tuttobiciweb. "I set a great split time after the climb and paid a little bit on the descent. The time confirms that I am good. Compared to the others, I used a different bike and I am convinced that I could have done much better if the road had been dry. The day after tomorrow comes the fun part.

"In theory, it was a time trial that suited me. I think I did a good ride. I didn’t take any risks on the descents and I think my time splits on the climbs were very good.

"Uran did a great ride but we're still up there. We'll fight it out for the Giro on the mountain stages. We head into the mountains on Saturday and hopefully the weather will be good. The forecasts aren't showing any rain, so that makes me optimistic."

Pozzovivo's teammate Patrick Gretsch finished 10th to make it two Ag2r riders in the top 10.

“Domenico and Patrick have both set excellent times," sports director Laurent Biondi said. "The main goal today for Pozzo was to get a good time without taking risks to avoid crashes, and those objectives are met. There are still many stages and great things to do, the race is far from over.”