Giro d'Italia: Filippo Ganna wins stage 1

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New world champion Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) stormed to victory in the opening 15.1km time trial on stage 1 at the Giro d’Italia with a dominant performance that ensured he became the first rider to pull on the maglia rosa in this year’s race.

The Italian, making his Grand Tour debut, set a time of 15:24 over the mostly downhill course to head off challenges from João Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates).

In the race between the overall contenders, Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) stole a march on his rivals, putting time into all of them, with the British rider completing the course in a time of 15:47. 

While Ineos Grenadiers celebrated their double victory, there was disappointment for Victor Campenaerts (NTT Pro Cycling) who crashed on the course. The UCI Hour Record holder came into the stage as one of Ganna’s main threats, but the Belgian came down and later criticized the state of the course. 

He was able to finish the stage, but there was another high-profile faller, with Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) crashing into the barriers at the second time check and leaving the race in an ambulance.

However, this was a day for Ganna, a rider who has made significant improvements in the last couple of years, both against the clock and on the track. He set off ahead of many of the GC riders on the stage and despite blustery conditions, he never once looked unlikely to take his maiden stage win in a Grand Tour.

"I'm really happy. This jersey is fantastic for me, and my team will also be happy. I say a big thank you to them, for all the support to arrive in pink at the Giro," Ganna said after stage 1 in Palermo.

At the 9.4km check, Ganna became the only rider to go under nine minutes with a time 11 seconds faster than Almeida, who until that point had the fastest time. Ganna also caught his minute-man out on the course, while the conditions and heavy cross-winds certainly played a major role in the performances of many riders, with two-time world time trial champion Rohan Dennis (Ineos Grenadiers) constantly blown across the wide-open roads in the second part of the course.

Almeida and Bjerg, who came into the race riding their first Grand Tours, could barely be separated on time with the Deceuninck rider just shading the Dane into third. Almeida set out early, when the wind was relatively calm, while the conditions worsened for most of the riders in the middle of the time trial, before the wind appeared to change direction for the last batch of athletes.

How it unfolded

The postponed Giro d'Italia got underway in a typically 2020 fashion, with muggy weather, high, gusty winds, greasy roads and a twisty, fast downhill start causing grief for the early starters.

Time trial expert Alex Dowsett (Israel Start-Up Nation) was the first man on course and had a scare on the fast descent before Hour Record holder Victor Campenaerts (NTT Pro Cycling) crashed, sending warning signals to the later starters.

"The roads are full of oil," Campenaerts said. "It doesn’t rain much here. If you organise a race with [speeds reaching] 100 kilometres per hour, you must clean the surface."

Young Deceuninck-Quickstep rider Almeida put in a brilliant and fearless ride to set the fastest early time with a 15:46.

With the first maglia rosa going to the time trial specialists, some of the sprinters, ironically, focussed their efforts on being quickest to the first check to earn points toward the mountains classification. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) set the quickest time at the first check before Rick Zabel (Israel Start-Up Nation) went one second quicker to take the jersey.

Almeida's time held through many overall contenders, although former U23 world champion Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates) came within half a second of unseating him.

Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) also came close, finishing one second slower than Almeida before Thomas' teammate, world champion Ganna, blasted through the line a full 22 seconds faster than the Portuguese rider to take the hot seat.

The general classification contenders mainly focussed on getting through safely, but Astana's Lopez came to grief ahead of the second check - while trying to shift gears he hit a bump and crashed heavily.

The rest of the starters failed to eclipse the world champion, and the GC contenders mainly fell far short of Thomas. Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) gave up 25 seconds over just 15.1km of racing, while Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb) and Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) each lost 1:05. Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) conceded 1:16 and Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) lost 1:21.