Ganna wins prologue and takes first leader's jersey at Deutschland Tour

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Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) won the prologue at the Deutschland Tour and with it he earned the first leader's jersey of the five-day race. 

The time trial world champion covered the 2.6km route in a winning time of 2 minutes and 56 seconds, beating runner up Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) by two seconds and defending champion Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe) by three seconds in Weimar.

Ganna will lead the overall classification into the first road stage with two seconds ahead of Mollema and three ahead of Politt, as the peloton tackle a 171km race from Weimar into Meiningen.

Henri Uhlig (Alpecin-Deceuninck Development) set the first benchmark of the day at 3:07:02 that set the tone for a time trial that would see 50+ km/h. He would eventually finish 28th as faster riders moved onto the circuit.

Greg van Avermaet (AG2R Citroën), Kim Heiduk and Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers), Mick van Dijke (Jumbo-Visma) all spent time in the hot seat as the speeds quickened to the 51km/h threshold.

Mollema was the first rider to crack the three-minute barrier with a time of 2:58, at 52.3km/h, but his time didn't hold as Ganna stormed through the finish line two seconds faster and at 53.1km/h in a time of 2:56.

Yves Lampaert (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) was the next in but could only manage a time fast enough for fifth place behind van Dijke on the day. 

Politt was the next over the line, and while the defending overall champion clocked speeds of 52.2km/h, he was three seconds slower than Ganna, but it was enough to hold onto third place.

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