Giro d'Italia 2018 Stage 1: Tom Dumoulin in pink as injured Chris Froome falters in time trial

Defending champion Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) picked up where he left off with an imperious performance on a challenging 9.7km course to take the pink jersey at the first time of asking.

The world time trial champion completed the technical course through the Israeli capital in a time of 12 minutes and four seconds – two seconds faster than Australia’s Rohan Dennis (BMC) and Belgian Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Fix All).

But the shock of the day came from Team Sky’s Froome, who conceded 37 seconds to his rival Dumoulin after suffering a bad crash earlier in the day while reconnoitring the course.

The four-time Tour de France champion – already under-fire because of a failed test for salbutamol during his victory in La Vuelta last September – looked uncomfortable and out-of-sorts as he failed to find his rhythm on his first appearance at the Giro since 2010.

Froome, who is attempting a Grand Slam by holding all three Grand Tour titles, later said that he was "glad" not to have come off worse following his crash. For his part, Dumoulin was in an ebullient mood after a perfect start to the defence of his crown.

“This was all I wished for – the win and a lot of time on the other GC riders,” said 27-year-old Dumoulin. “It was a perfect course for me – very technical and a lot of corners. It was all about full-gas and recovery – it was perfect for me.”

Asked if it was his intention to keep the race lead all the way to the finish in Rome, Dumoulin gave a realistic answer: “It’s nice to have the pink jersey but we are not planning on defending the jersey every day so we will see what happens.”

Katusha-Alpecin duo Jose Goncalves and Alex Dowsett completed the top five in Jerusalem with a third Katusha rider, German veteran Tony Martin, coming ninth – 27 seconds down and tied for time with Italy’s Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain Merida).

Britain’s Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) rode to a superb seventh place to concede just 20 seconds to Dumoulin, while Frenchman Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) was the best placed of the Dutchman’s big rivals, 33 seconds in arrears.

Despite his crash, Froome fared comparatively well compared to some of the other race favourites. The 32-year-old came home nine seconds quicker than Colombian Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott), 13 seconds quicker than Italy’s Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates) and 25 seconds quicker than the Canadian Michael Woods (EF Education First-Drapac).

Froome was also not alone in crashing on the irregular camber of the dusty roads in Jerusalem: Colombia’s Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) picked up some similar road rash in training while Froome’s former team-mate, the Belarusian Kanstantsin Siutsou (Bahrain Merida), was forced to withdraw with a broken vertebra before the race had even started.

Lopez, seen as a genuine pink jersey contender prior to the race, finished 19 seconds behind Froome and 56 seconds behind the winner Dumoulin.

Froome told teamsky.com: "Obviously I saw what happened to Kosta (Siutsou) who is in hospital – so I’m just glad I’m not more injured after today. That’s bike racing though and all part of the sport."

Although this was far from the perfect start to his race, Froome remains upbeat about his prospects of winning his - and Team Sky's - first Giro. He was also complimentary to his biggest rival for pink.

"I’m not relying on TT’s to try and win this Giro with Tom here. He did a great ride today – to come here and win out of the box like that is seriously impressive. Congrats to him. Obviously Rohan Dennis and Tom were the two guys who gained time today, but there are other GC guys there or thereabouts. There’s a long way to go and it’s good to be here and get the racing under way."

Australian national champion Dennis occupied the hot seat for the best part of two hours after setting the best early time despite complaints about the road surface.

“I’m in a little bit of pain right now,” he told reporters soon after clocking the target time of 12:04.

“I have no idea what’s going to be the fastest time today but I left everything out there on the road, so fingers crossed. It was technical, hard to get a rhythm and challenging. I would have liked for the roads to be a bit smoother but you can’t have everything.”

Goncalves, Dowsett and Spain's Pello Bilbao (Astana) all gave the BMC rider a run for his money before German youngster Max Schachmann (Quick-Step Floors) signalled his intent by coming through the intermediate check four seconds to the better of Dennis.

If Schachmann was to fade then Campenaerts, the European time trial champion, finished impressively to tie Dennis’s time ahead of the arrival of the final riders.

And while Froome faltered in the Israeli heat, Dumoulin, the last rider to roll down the ramp, got in his stride to power home two seconds faster than both his rivals and pick up his first win of the season.

It was Dumoulin’s fourth stage win in the Giro and ensured that the towering Dutchman will pick up where he left off: in pink.

Froome and Lopez, meanwhile, will lick their wounds as the race heads to Haifa on the Mediterranean coast for a largely flat 167km stage 2 which should conclude in a bunch sprint at Tel Aviv.