Filippo Ganna won the men's Italian National time trial title for the fifth time on Thursday, dominating the flat 35.1km course around the exposed flat roads of Grosseto in southern Tuscany.
Ganna set a time of 39:17 to beat Edoardo Affini (Visma-Lease a Bike) by 23 seconds and Filippo Baroncini (UAE Team Emirates) by 54 seconds.
Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) finished fourth at 1:00, with Matteo Trentin (Tudor) fifth at 1:06 and under-23 world champion Lorenzo Milesi (Movistar) sixth at 1:42.
The course was designed to replicate the Paris Olympic time trial course with long straight roads covering flat terrain, making it perfect for pure power time trialists like Ganna and Affini. However, a sudden increase in temperatures and humidity meant the riders faced 34C heat and stiff hot-air winds.
19 riders covered the two 17.5km laps for a total distance of 35.1km, with a pause between two sets of riders to limit the number of rides out on the course. Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost) was a surprise non-starter.
Mirco Maestri ((Polti Kometa) set a time of 41:11 and was the first into the hot seat as the favourites warmed up and started their rides.
Trentin was faster than Maestri after one lap, with a time of 20:01 but then Baroncini went even faster in 19:57.
Ganna was last to start but was soon tucked low over his Pinarello time trial bike in what was his final equipment race test before Paris. Affini set a time of 19:43 for the first lap but then Ganna set 19:21 to confirm his intentions and marked superiority.
Trentin briefly took the hot seat from Maestri but then Baroncini set 40:12 to displace him.
Alessandro De Marchi (Jayco AlUla) impressed with a time of 41:16 but then Afini and Ganna came home. Affini stopped the clock in 39:41, some 30 seconds faster than Baroncini. He then waited to see Ganna’s time.
The former world champion and recent Giro d'Italia time trial stage winner quickly appeared at the finish to set a time of 39:17, which was 23 seconds faster than Affini, with an average speed of 53.6km/h.
Results
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