Tarling wins Giro time trial in Tirana, Roglic in pink
In the overall standings, pre-race favourite and 2023 Giro champion Primoz Roglic grabbed the coveted pink jersey from Friday's stage winner Mads Pedersen, who was an agonising two seconds short of clinging on.
The 21-year old Tarling of Ineos is a time-trial specialist and finished the 13.7km circuit in 16min 07sec, 1sec faster than Roglic and 3sec faster than Jay Vine.
Decked out in the British national time-trial jersey Tarling held his head in his hands as he watched Pedersen on the home stretch.
"Winning today is truly exceptional. Waiting for the other riders to finish the course was difficult. I don't want to go through that again," he joked.
"I was afraid of all the favourites. Primoz was really impressive. so this first Grand Tour victory is a new step in my career,” said Tarling, who came fourth at the Olympic Games and might have won but for a heavy fall in tha rain.
Belgian star Wout van Aert had been expected to win this stage and claim the pink pullover but never put the hammer down as he struggles to overcome a stomach bug.
Of the main overall contenders most of them finished over 30sec down on Roglic, but with a relentless stream of hilly and mountain stages along the 3400km 21-day race, the Slovenian won't be getting excited yet.
Roglic leads his key rival Team UAE's Juan Ayuso by 16sec, as the 22-year-old Spaniard attempts to defend the title his team won with Tadej Pogacar in 2024.
Italian home hope Antonio Tiberi is 25sec down, Simon Yates of Visma is at 33sec and his twin brother Adam Yates of UAE is at 36sec.
Two former South American winners of the Giro Richard Carapaz of American outfit EF is 37sec done on Roglic and Colombian Egan Bernal is at 48.
Those kind of gaps can go up in smoke over the space of a kilometre in the high mountains during the final week.
The final week of the Giro will be decisive with stage 16 featuring five Alpine mountains, and stage 20 ending with a gruelling climb up the Colle delle Finestre to the Sestriere ski resort, the moment when the winner is likely to emerge.
The world and Olympic time-trial champion Remco Evenepoel is absent from this Giro, as are two other handy time trial riders Filippo Ganna and defending Giro and Tour de france champion Tadej Pogacar.
Albania is hosting the first three days of the 2025 Giro with the Balkan nation enjoying a tourism boom.
Sunday's third stage at Valona will showcase some of Albania's prettiest coastline, while the stage itself is largely flat and will favour the sprinters who were dropped in the hills Friday, and who suffered through Saturday's individual effort.