UAE Tour: Ganna wins stage 2 as Pogacar takes overall lead

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Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) took his eighth time trial victory in a row on stage 2 of the UAE Tour, easing to the win on the 13-kilometre cycle track on Al Hudayriat Island.

The Italian's time of 13:56, at an average of 55.981kph, was far beyond the reach of any other rider on the course, with Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-Nippo) taking second place at 14 seconds. Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates) took third a further seven seconds back at 14:17.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) is the new race leader after the withdrawal of previous leader Mathieu van der Poel's Alpecin-Fenix due to a positive COVID-19 test in the team. 

The Slovenian's time of 14:20 was enough for fourth on the day, and he now leads the race by six seconds ahead of João Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep), while Mattia Cattaneo (Deceuninck-QuickStep) lies third overall at 18 seconds.

"It's not easy," Ganna said after the stage. "Every race is hard because you have to arrive with good focus and good legs. Luckily, my body was ready today and we got this fantastic result for me and the team.

"It's strange in the middle of the desert. It's really nice, my first time here, too. At the moment I'm really happy and hope to use this for future races like Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo next month."

How it unfolded

After the crosswinds and major GC shakeup on stage 1 of the race, there'd be another opportunity to make time on stage 2, a pan-flat time trial on Hudayriyat Island to the south of the capital, Abu Dhabi. The 13-kilometre course – a power ride rather than technical challenge – is a new addition to the race, though follows some of the same roads as the 2019 team time trial.

The big news of the morning was that stage 1 winner and race leader Mathieu van der Poel wouldn't continue the race as his Alpecin-Fenix team were forced to pull out due to a staff member's positive COVID-19 test. As a result, Jumbo-Visma's David Dekker would be riding to defend the race lead as the last man off.

Uniquely among WorldTour races, only the top 10 would riders set off in GC order, with the rest of the field starting when they wished. That meant that Bjerg was able to set off third and set the early pace at 14:17, despite lying 22nd overall.

The Danish specialist wasn't in the hot seat for long, though, as Bissegger took seven seconds off his time to go top less than 10 minutes later. Luis León Sánchez (Astana-Premier Tech) and Max Walscheid (Team DSM) came closest to challenging the Swiss rider in the 30 minutes after his ride, setting times of 14:26 and 14:28 respectively to go provisional third and fourth.

Shortly afterwards, big names Alexey Lutsenko (Astana-Premier Tech), Chris Froome (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) began their efforts, although, with the latter two over eight minutes down after stage 1, only Yates was riding for the GC.

Yates' 14:54 was good for provisional 15th, while Lutsenko rode to 11th, and Froome finished 1:22 down on Bissegger. The following mid-section of the stage saw riders come and go without troubling the top of the leaderboard, though Matteo Sobrero (Qhubeka Assos) snuck into the top 10.

Former world Hour Record holder Alex Dowsett (Israel Start-Up Nation) set off half an hour later, with Lawson Craddock (EF Education-Nippo) and Daniel Martínez (Ineos Grenadiers) following shortly after. Martínez was the strongest of the three, racing home in 14:32, three seconds up on Craddock and 17 on Dowsett.

Despite Sergio Higuita (EF Education-Nippo), Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), Alexys Brunel (Groupama-FDJ) and Trek-Segafredo youngster Antonio Tiberi putting in solid efforts to line the fringes of the top 10, with the latter crashing over the line, all eyes were on Ganna in the second half of the stage.

The Italian was aiming for his eighth-straight time trial victory stretching back to the Italian National Championships last August, and duly set the quickest time at the intermediate checkpoint, seven seconds up on Bissegger after 6.5 kilometres. He was metres away from catching Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) at the finish, by which point he had taken another seven seconds out of Bissegger, taking over the top spot with predictable ease.

The top 10 on GC would see a battle for the leader's jersey between Giro d'Italia revelation Almeida and Tour de France champion Pogačar, with just a second separating the two after stage 1. Pogačar drew first blood, making up eight seconds at the checkpoint as the Slovenian put in the third-fastest time.

He held onto his advantage through the second half of the course, crossing the line six seconds quicker than Almeida to take fourth. With the last two men off – Michael Mørkøv (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and David Dekker (Jumbo-Visma) – posing no threat on a time trial bike, Pogačar safely moved into the red jersey ahead of Tuesday's stage 3, the summit finish of Jebel Hafeet. 13 men lie within a minute of the 22-year-old, though he is now the clear favourite for overall victory at his team's home race.