Tour de la Provence: Filippo Ganna wins prologue

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World time trial champion Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) wasted no time in stamping his authority on the discipline in 2022, taking out a commanding victory in the prologue of the Tour de la Provence. 

The Italian blazed through the 7.1km course in Berre-l'Étang in just over eight minutes to deny his teammate Ethan Hayter the stage win, beating him by 12 seconds. Swede Tobias Ludvigsson (Groupama-FDJ) was a close third, less than a second further behind.

It was Ganna's second time trial win of the year after he claimed the final stage of Etoile de Bessèges.

"To come back to Provence and win again is really nice," Ganna said, referring to his 2019 prologue victory in his debut with his current squad when it was Team Sky, he added, "my first victory in a WorldTour team I did here. To come back, it's nice to see another win after three or four days. It's a good start to the season."

With Hayter well positioned in the standings, and a relatively flat day ahead but one that could be tricky with high winds, Ganna said, "now we think to the next stages to improve with the team and cross our fingers. Tomorrow is a really hard stage because there's a lot of wind. Maybe it will be possible to cut the bunch, we'll see. We just have to be ready."

Warm and sunny conditions were perfect for high speeds with only a light breeze and a few technical corners to slow the 105 starters. Patrick Bevin (Israel-Premier Tech) set the fastest time as the second rider down the ramp, but the capable Kiwi was knocked out of the hot seat by Samuele Battistella (Astana Qazaqstan) soon after.

The Italian's time stood until Ludvigsson came blasting through a second quicker. The Swede then spent the better part of the afternoon as the fastest rider until Hayter came through just four-tenths of a second faster.

But the world champion, after a friendly wave and smile before heading down the ramp, was far above the level of the rest of the field, and scorched the tarmac, covering the course at 52.8 kph.