Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) claimed the third Italian time trial title of his career on Wednesday with a dominant ride that underlines his form ahead of the Tour de France.
Ganna, who won the title in 2019 and 2020 but missed out last year, dominated this year's event, beating Mattia Cattaneo (QuickStep-Alpha-Vinyl) and Edoardo Affini (Jumbo-Visma) to the top spot of the podium.
Ganna is also the world champion and will therefore not wear the Italian champion's tricolore skinsuit until at least September, and even then he will be favoured to retain the rainbow bands for another year.
Article continues belowGanna, riding the new disguised Pinarello Bolide TT bike, set a time of 40:29 on the 35.6km course in San Giovanni al Natisone, which was largely flat and suited to the more powerful riders.
He beat Cattaneo by 36 seconds, with Affini third at 50 seconds. Last year's winner Matteo Sobrero (BikeExchange-Jayco) could only manage fourth but was the only other rider to finish within a minute of the winning time.
Ganna was only four seconds up on Cattaneo at the mid-way checkpoint but blitzed the second half of the course to put the title out of sight.
Ganna's victory underlines his status as favourite for the opening time trial at the Tour de France next Friday. The Tour kicks off with a 13.2km course in Copenhagen, with the first yellow jersey up for grabs.
Ganna has won two world titles, three national titles, and six stages at the Giro d'Italia but has yet to make his Tour de France debut.
-
'No reason to panic' – Remco Evenepoel drops down Volta a Catalunya standings as Florian Lipowitz closes in on podium
Belgian says 'I've felt worse two days after a fall' as tactics favour his German teammate -
'Today I lost a life for sure' - Tom Pidcock 'OK' after crashing into a ravine in the Volta a Catalunya out of sight of race
'I was far from the road and nobody knew I was there,' says Briton, bolstering UCI case for GPS tracking -
'I gave up, actually, because they were so close' – Mathieu van der Poel made to look human despite completing E3 Saxo Classic hat-trick with 'one of my best efforts'
Dutchman talks through 63km solo win after chasing quartet fumbled the catch in the final kilometres of a dramatic edition -
'It's not up to us' or 'there is no more time to gamble'? How big teams in the peloton failed to chase down Mathieu van der Poel in E3 Saxo Classic
Peloton was at one point only 30 seconds behind solo Dutchman, with numbers for many teams, but directors from Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and Lidl-Trek disagree on where chasing responsibility lies
