Filippo Ganna wins Giro d'Italia stage one time trial and takes maglia rosa
Ineos Grenadiers’ Filippo Ganna won the opening stage of the Giro d’Italia on Saturday, a 15.1km individual time trial between Monreale and Palermo, to secure the first maglia rosa leader’s jersey of this year’s race.
The Italian, who won the men’s individual time trial title at the world championships last week, clocked 15min 24sec to beat the second-placed rider, Portugal’s João Almeida, by a massive 22sec.
The 2018 Tour de France champion, Geraint Thomas, also from Ineos Grenadiers, was the best of the pre-race favourites when he took fourth place with a time of 15min 47sec, as his compatriot Simon Yates of MitcheltonScott lost 26 seconds to his British rival on a course that was never expected to suit him.
Vincenzo Nibali of Trek–Segafredo, twice the champion and a home favourite, had a disappointing ride, finishing 1min 6sec behind Thomas, with the Dane Jakob Fuglsang (Astana Pro Team) and the Dutchman Steven Kruijswijk (Team Jumbo Visma) also losing precious time – down 1min 24sec and 1min 21sec on Ganna, respectively.
Fuglsang’s Astana teammate and co-leader, Aleksandr Vlasov of Russia, lost 54 seconds to Thomas. Astana also lost the key climber Miguel Ángel López, sixth overall in the Tour de France, who was taken into an ambulance after crashing heavily when he hit a bump in the road.
“Today I knew I was one of the hot favourites but I tried to stay calm,” said Ganna. “We did it, what a great result and what a thrill to wear the maglia rosa on my first Giro, which is a good omen for the rest of the race.”
His teammate Thomas said: “It was windy but I think I was comfortable on the bike. Maybe I was just a little too
aggressive at the start and in the last two kilometres I lost the legs a little bit.
Maybe just a little too much in the first half but we can still be pretty happy.”
The Giro was rescheduled from its original 9-31 May dates, with the start being moved from Hungary to Sicily, because of the coronavirus pandemic.