Tirreno-Adriatico: Wout van Aert beats Filippo Ganna in closing time trial

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All good things must come to an end, the proverb goes, and so it proved in San Benedetto del Tronto on the final stage of Tirreno-Adriatico as world time trial champion, Ineos Grenadiers' Filippo Ganna, lost a time trial for the first time in over a year.

Jumbo-Visma's Wout van Aert – one of the stars of the week – became the first man to beat the Italian since Remco Evenepoel, breaking a run of eight dominant time trial wins in a row dating back to the 2020 Vuelta a San Juan.

The Belgian's time of 11:06.130 – an average speed of 54.595 kph – was enough to take the win by just over six seconds ahead of Groupama-FDJ's Stefan Küng on the Adriatic-facing 10.1-kilometre course.

In the end, Ganna could only finish in third place, his worst time trial result since the 2019 Worlds in Yorkshire, 11.3 seconds down on Van Aert.

Two minutes after Van Aert, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) crossed the line safely in the blue jersey, taking fourth place on the stage 12.8 seconds back, to secure overall victory at the week-long race.

"It was a really hard one even though it's short," Van Aert said of the stage after finishing his effort. "You always hurt yourself to the maximum. I'm really happy with this. I'm improving my time trials in the past years and this field is almost all the best time triallists on the start line. It's a really good start of the season with the first time trial.

"I was in the bus until 10 minutes before the start, so I didn't check the wind. It's always difficult with time trial to have the same circumstances for everyone. I always hope everyone has the same conditions, but it also plays a role, of course.

"It's the first time I aimed for a GC in a WorldTour stage race, and I only got beaten by TDF winner, so I guess that's a pretty good start. I will definitely try more of these in the future but for now I have my eye on the Classics."

Van Aert ends the week 1:03 down on Pogačar, with the Slovenian taking the sixth stage race victory of his young career. Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) finished the week in third overall, 3:57 back. Van Aert secured the ciclamino points jersey, while Pogačar wins the green mountains jersey and white young rider's jersey.

How it unfolded

After a week of exciting racing, including the highlight, Sunday's fifth stage, Tirreno-Adriatico drew to a close with the traditional, pan-flat, 10.1-kilometre time trial by the beach in San Benedetto del Tronto.

The course, a basic out and back alongside the Adriatic Sea, posed little in the way of a technical challenge, with power riders coming to the fore. Last September's edition saw world time trial champion Ganna smash the course record with a time of 10:42, set at an average speed of 56.636kph.

Riders could either choose to make hay on the way out, aided in the opening half by a tailwind, or save their energy for the second part, where they'd be buffeted by a headwind on the run to the finish.

A lack of top time triallists among the early runners ensured there would be a wait for the bigger names to head out, though the split times and speeds would give an indication about exactly how strong the winds were.

Bahrain Victorious rider Jan Tratnik was the quickset of the early runners, though his time of 11:39 was pipped by one second less than a minute later after Edoardo Affini (Team BikeExchange) crossed the line. The Italian had averaged 55.579 kph to the four-kilometre checkpoint, while his speed over the closing six kilometres was a mere 52.092 kph, demonstrating the effects of the wind and confirming that nobody would touch Ganna's course record.

Sebastian Langeveld (EF Education-Nippo) was the next to shave some time off just four minutes later, though the Dutchman's time of 11:36 was soon bested by Australian Michael Hepburn (Team BikeExchange) with a time of 11:33.

Half an hour later, Groupama-FDJ's Tobias Ludvigsson got within a second of Hepburn, while EF-Nippo rider Alberto Bettiol was the next to make a breakthrough. The 2019 Tour of Flanders winner put nine seconds into Hepburn with a time of 11:24, though Küng was already out on course and going faster, too.

The European time trial champion put six seconds into Bettiol at the checkpoint, adding another six at the finish to blow away the 27-year-old's time with a 11:12 at the line. After Küng had crossed the line, all the attention turned to Ganna, who was the favourite to take yet another time trial win.

He didn't have the best start, crossing the first checkpoint four seconds down on Küng, and any hopes of a turnaround in the second part faded as he shedded a further second to finish just under five seconds short of the Swiss rider's time.
Soon after, French time trial champion Benjamin Thomas (Groupama-FDJ) impressed with a ride to provisional third at 11:22, while Kasper Asgreeen (Deceuninck-QuickStep) went fifth at 11:32 and Thomas' teammat Thibaut Pinot rode a solid 11:41 for 11th.

As the time for the top GC riders neared, Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) tested himself with an 11:34 at an average of 52.394 kph. The next crop of riders did little to affect the day's standings – between Thomas' 26th place and Deceuninck-QuickStep leader João Almeida in seventh, only Tobias Foss (Jumbo-Visma) and Fabio Felline (Astana-Premier Tech) put in times worthy of the top 20 at the finish.

Almeida was fourth at the checkpoint, just five seconds down on Küng and with a more favourable wind situation to finish, too. He faded in the second half of the stage though, losing a further 13 seconds on the run to the finish to close out his race with the provisional fifth-best time of 11:30.

That time meant he moved up to sixth overall after Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) shed 18 seconds at the line, while Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) was aiming for the slim chance of moving up onto the podium. The Colombian had Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) in his sights, though a 30-second gap would be a big ask on such a short course.

Behind that duo, Van Aert was busy setting the quickest time at the checkpoint, edging a second ahead of Küng after four kilometres. Two minutes later, Pogačar, safe in the leader's blue jersey, lost just eight seconds to Van Aert at the check.

Bernal would cross the line just 14 seconds up on Landa, meaning the Spaniard grabbed third on the podium, while Van Aert flew around the rest of the course to phenomenally take the stage victory, putting over a second per kilometre into the time trial world champion. Pogačar's overall win was in the bag, but he didn't ease up during his effort, either, taking fourth place and only missing out on Ganna's time by 1.5 seconds.