Filippo Ganna more than lived up to his overwhelming status as favourite on Tirreno-Adriatico's stage 1 time trial as he clinched the victory by a whopping 22 seconds over Ineos Grenadiers teammate Thymen Arensman and 26 seconds on Max Walscheid (Lidl-Trek)
The winner of three of the last four opening time trials in Tirreno, including on last year's identical 11.5km course at Lido di Camaiore, Ganna was already three seconds faster than teammate Magnus Sheffield at the mid-stage split.
The Italian then opened up the throttle even more on the return half of the course along the Camaiore seafront to claim his second victory of the season as well as the first leader's jersey of the race.
Amongst the general classification favourites, Arensman delivered the most impressive ride whilst former Tirreno winner Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was just nine seconds slower in seventh place.
Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) was next in the unofficial GC pecking order, two seconds slower, while Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) rounded out the stage's top ten, 36 seconds down on Ganna.
Having clinched a considerably bigger advantage on his closest rival than his 0.22-second gap on runner-up and 2025 overall winner Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) last year, not to mention breaking the record for the 11.5-kilometre course with an mindboggling average speed of 56.225kmh, Ganna was logically extremely pleased with his performance.
"I'm very happy," the current Italian National Time Trial Champion said. "Like I said yesterday" – in the favourites' press conference – "I don't want to push the legs too much when my big goals of this part of the year [the Classics] are still in a few weeks time.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
"At the moment, I'm really happy, the shape is good. My feelings weren't the best, but Thymen and Magnus" – who made it three of the top four finishers for Ineos – "did amazingly well, too. It was great for the team.
"For sure, I don't want to lose the leader's jersey, I'll fight for it and maybe try to win another stage. But it's not easy, so I'll support the team as well and see what I can do."
How it unfolded
Of the early starters, Jan Tratnik (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was the first to set a notable time, the veteran Slovenian allrounder moving to the top of the leaderboard when he clocked exactly 13 minutes for the completely flat, untechnical out-and-back course.
Soon afterwards, another top name in the first hour and a former Tirreno-Adriatico TT stage winner, Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), finished 18 seconds slower than his former teammate.
Tratnik was then decisively overtaken by Alan Hatherly (Jayco-AlUla), the South African National Time Trial Champion. Hatherly was two seconds faster than Tratnik at the midway checkpoint but opened up the throttle with a vengeance to come home a whopping 22 seconds ahead.
One top favourite, Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), had a strong start and even marked the intermediate best time split at stage 1's only checkpoint at kilometre five, only to then fade somewhat to complete the course 6 seconds down on Hatherly's time of 12:38.
On the other hand, Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers) opened up a 12-second advantage on the South African at the split and, despite shedding time in the second half, still had four seconds' advantage over Hatherly to go into the top spot at the finish.
The American's hold on the leader's spot evaporated in less than a minute, though, after Lidl-Trek's Max Walscheid finished a few hundredths of a second ahead. Even if Sheffield could not succeed, he at least had the satisfaction of seeing his teammate Thymen Arensman go quicker than Walscheid's time by four seconds.
Arensman blasted round the course as the fastest GC rider (Image credit: Getty Images)
All eyes were on Ganna, however, whose stunning track record at Camaoire, not to mention a promising TT victory earlier this year in the Volta ao Algarve, all contributed to the anticipation. And as he stormed out of the start pavilion, clearly at home on a course that seemingly designed for track specialists like the former Hour Record holder, there seemed to be little chance of any disappointment for the local tifosi.
Flashing through the mid-way checkpoint three seconds faster than Sheffield augered well, particularly as Ganna was also nine seconds quicker than Arensman as he blasted along the seafront on the return segment.
Then, as one of the very few riders able to outpower his minute-man Alessandro Covi (Jayco-AIUIa) in the closing kilometre, Ganna was a jaw-dropping 22 seconds ahead of Arensman by the time he reached the line, a knock-out stage win and his twelfth leader's jersey in the race.
So what's next? Given his cobbled Classics talent, the Italian will likely feel more at home on the gravel sections that feature late on Tuesday's 206.2-kilometre run from Camaiore to San Gimignano. However, whether he opts to maintain his own chances or opts to support Arensman in the kilometre-long uphill that concludes the stage will only become clear in 24 hours' time.
Ganna took the first blue leader's jersey of the race (Image credit: Getty Images)
Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
