Ganna is Tirreno-Adriatico’s first leader for fourth time in five years

Filippo Ganna (Italy/Ineos) won Monday’s short opening time trial of the WorldTour Tirreno-Adriatico to wear the first blue leader’s jersey, an accomplishment he has now nailed four of the last five years. Only Juan Ayuso has beaten Ganna in the Race of the Two Seas’ opening chrono in that time. In his season debut, Primoz Roglič set himself up with the best result of the GC contenders.

Preliminaries

Last year, Ayuso took his first major stage race title, while Derek Gee-West just missed the podium. This season, two-time champion Roglič faces Mexican sensation Isaac del Toro, fresh from a Strade Bianche podium, to vie the neato Neptune’s Trident trophy, along with Giulio Pellizzari, Giulio Ciccone and Richard Carapaz.

The Course

Last year’s final podium man Ganna would have the advantage of Stage 1 being his territory: the traditional short time trial in Lido di Camaiore. The route was pan flat. The intermediate time was taken at the 5-km mark.

Early on South African Alan Hatherly had the best time with 12:38, Wout van Aert +0:40.

Del Toro cracked the best intermediate time with 5:39. The Mexican really dug in but came up six seconds short of Hatherly.

In quick succession, first Magnus Sheffield and then Max Walscheid posted the best time, the latter stopping the watch at 12:34. Thymen Arensman cracked that with 12:30.

Could Mathieu van der Poel do better than his old rival van Aert? The answer was no.

Roglič and Ganna were among the last riders. Ganna claimed the best intermediate time with 5:30, Roglič 15 seconds slower. Of all the serious GC contenders, the Slovenian had the best time.

Ganna beat teammate Thymen Arensman by 22 seconds for the blue jersey.

Stage 2 has gravel near the finish. A 1.2-km, 7.1 percent ramp takes the riders to the finish in San Gimignano.

61st Tirreno-Adriatico, Stage 1
1) Filippo Ganna (Italy/Ineos) 12:08
2) Thymen Arensman (The Netherlands/Ineos) +0:22
3) Max Walscheid (Germany/Lidl-Trek)