Giro d'Italia: Ganna storms to victory in stage 1 time trial

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Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) kicked off the 2021 Giro d'Italia with a return to time trialing form, winning the opening 8.6-kilometre test in Turin with a stunning time of 8:47 – an average speed of 58.748kph – to give him the maglia rosa on the opening day for the second year in a row.

The Italian, who had lost his previous two time trial outings at the Tour de Romandie and Tirreno-Adriatico, blitzed the course along the banks of the River Po to beat compatriot Edoardo Affini (Jumbo-Visma) into second place by a full 10 seconds. An impressive ride saw Affini's teammate Tobias Foss round out the podium a further three seconds back with a time of 9:00.

"It’s been a lot of time that I wasn’t in the hot seat but I’m here and so I’m really happy," Ganna said after the stage. Now we have to think think to tomorrow and to recovery to start what will be a really hard Giro

"I started with a small radio but I didn’t hear anything, so I told myself to go full gas and listen to the people along the road. If they cheered for me, then I knew I was going fast. That’s how I got this amazing victory.

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"After Romandie my morale was not too high, but now its back and I’m really happy."

Deceuninck-QuickStep's general classification challengers enjoyed a good start to their campaigns, with João Almeida the fastest of the hopefuls, taking fourth with a time of 9:04.

His teammate, Belgian prodigy Remco Evenepoel, was seventh with a time of 9:06 following his long layoff from racing after his Il Lombardia crash. Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana-Premier Tech) was the best of the rest of the GC men, finishing 11th with a time of 9:11.

The rest of the big hitters, meanwhile, were clustered around the 9:20 to 9:30 mark, with Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers) at 9:21, Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange) at 9:25, Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) a second slower, Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) and George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma) at 9:28, and 2020 runner-up Jai Hindley (Team DSM) at 9:33.

A little further back, Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) finished with a time of 9:36, Romain Bardet (Team DSM) crossed the line in 9:39, while Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) set times of 9:42 and 9:44.

How it unfolded

Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec's Filippo Tagliani was the man to kick off the 2021 Giro d'Italia, setting off to begin his run on the pan-flat 8.6-kilometre power course. The Italian was not, however, the first man to reach the finish, despite setting off a minute ahead of Jumbo-Visma sprinter David Dekker.

The young Dutchman set the very early running with a time of 9:19 and an average speed of 55.385kph. He was matched, a minute later, by Victor Campenaerts (Qhubeka Assos), three times a runner-up at Giro d'Italia time trials in the past. The world Hour Record holder was not on a good day, though, and any hopes of finally clinching that win soon went out the window as first Roger Kluge (Bora-Hansgrohe) and then Jonathan Castroviejo (Ineos Grenadiers) went quicker with times of 19:17 and 19:14.

As Dekker's teammate Dylan Groenewegen made his return to racing after his nine-month ban, Luis León Sánchez (Astana-Premier Tech) was unfortunate to puncture early on in his effort, and with no spare time trial bike was forced into – bizarrely – riding the rest of the course on a road bike. He duly finished with a time of 10:24, understandably the slowest yet.

Four minutes later, Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) put in a good ride to go second overall, missing out to Castroviejo by just under two seconds. Few of the following riders would get close to the top of the standings, though Alessandro De Marchi (Israel Start-Up Nation) – at 9:17 – and Samuele Battistella (Qhubeka Assos) – at 9:20 – put in good rides.

De Marchi's teammate Matthias Brändle was much quicker though. Quicker than anybody, in fact, as he set a time of 9:09, five seconds up on Castroviejo and the first man to break 56kph on the day. Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana-Premier Tech) was the first of the major maglia rosa contenders to start his ride some quarter of an hour later, putting in a fantastic effort to go provisional second with a time of 9:11.
Two-time Giro winner, Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo), meanwhile, rode a creditable ride with his fractured wrist, finishing with a time of 9:28, while Gianni Moscon (Ineos Grenadiers) continued his strong Tour of the Alps form with a time of 9:10 putting him second at the time.

Moments later, Tobias Foss (Jumbo-Visma) blew everyone away, averaging 57.333kph during his effort to set a time of nine minutes dead – over a second a kilometre faster than Brändle. The Norwegian was so fast that Rémi Cavagna (Deceuninck-QuickStep), one of the favourites for the stage, could only finish five seconds down.

The next challenger came in the shape of Foss' teammate Edoardo Affini, who was fastest at the checkpoint and again at the finish with a time of 8:57. With the last hour of action underway, it was just about time for the rest of the GC big hitters to start their race, with Hugh Carthy (EF Education-Nippo) putting in a decent time of 9:25.

Dutch time trial champion barely missed out on making it a Jumbo-Visma 1-2-3 at the top of the standings, losing eight-tenths of a second to Cavagna at the finish. João Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) was the next big hitter off, followed in close succession by Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange), and Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation).

Unsurprisingly, Almeida was the best of that GC grouping, setting a time of 9:04 to go third fastest. Bernal's 9:26 was bested shortly after by Yates' 9:25, while Martin lost time with 9:44. The 2020 runner-up Jai Hindley (Team DSM), meanwhile, put in a time of 9:33.

The long-awaited wait for Remco Evenepoel's return to racing came to an end soon after, with the young Deceuninck-QuickStep talent setting off a minute ahead of world time trial champion Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) and setting the fourth-fastest time at the checkpoint with a time of 4:02.

Ganna, who hails from north Piemonte not too far from Turin, was quickest there, three seconds up on Evenepoel and two up on Affini, the previously pacesetter at the checkpoint. Evenepoel crossed the line in provisional sixth, logging a time of 9:06 to take time on most of his GC rivals, aside from his teammate Almeida.

There was no stopping Ganna, however. The 24-year-old, who has bossed time trials in the past year, didn't let up in the second half of the course, blowing away his rivals to finish some way clear of the now-second-placed Affini and take the first pink jersey of the 2021 race.