Reigning Tour de France winner Pogačar finished fourth in the 11.1-kilometre time trial, 12 seconds behind the stage winner, Belgian Wout van Aert of Jumbo-Visma.

Slovenia's Pogačar entered the final stage with a 75-second lead, so was a convincing winner of the general classification.

"It's a fantastic start to the season but I think I need a little rest now to continue the next part," Pogačar said.

Van Aert finished the time trail in 11min 06sec, 6sec ahead of his closest challenger, Swiss rider Stefan Küng of Groupama-FDJ.

Italy's Filippo Ganna of Ineos Grenadiers finished third, 11sec behind Van Aert.

Van Aert's victory ended Ganna's eight-race unbeaten run in time trials, dating back to the 2020 Vuelta a San Juan.

Ganna's third place was his worst result in a time trial result since the 2019 Road World Championships in Yorkshire in England.

"It was a really hard one even though it's short," said Van Aert of the time trial.

"You always hurt yourself to the maximum, I'm really happy with this. 

"I'm improving my time trials in the past years and this field is almost all the best time triallists on the start line so it's a really good start of the season with the first time trial.

Pogačar claimed the general classification title in a combined race time of 26 hours 36min 17sec.

Van Aert was second, 1min 03sec behind, while Spain's Mikel Landa of Bahrain Victorious was third, 3:57 behind the winner.

"It's the first time I aimed for a general classification in a WorldTour stage race, and I only got beaten by Tour de France winner, so I guess that's a pretty good start," added Van Aert.

"I will definitely try more of these in the future but for now I have my eye on the Classics."

The next leg of the International Cycling Union WorldTour is the one-day race Milan-San Remo, also in Italy.

It will be held on Saturday (March 20).