Filippo Ganna more than lived up to his overwhelming status as favourite on Tirreno-Adriatico‘s stage 1 time trial as he clinched the victory by a whopping 22 seconds over Ineos Grenadiers teammate Thymen Arensman and 26 seconds on Max Walscheid (Lidl-Trek)
The winner of three of the last four opening time trials in Tirreno, including on last year’s identical 11.5km course at Lido di Camaiore, Ganna was already three seconds faster than teammate Magnus Sheffield at the mid-stage split.
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Amongst the general classification favourites, Arensman delivered the most impressive ride whilst former Tirreno winner Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was just nine seconds slower in seventh place.
“I’m very happy,” the current Italian National Time Trial Champion said. “Like I said yesterday” – in the favourites’ press conference – “I don’t want to push the legs too much when my big goals of this part of the year [the Classics] are still in a few weeks time.
“At the moment, I’m really happy, the shape is good. My feelings weren’t the best, but Thymen and Magnus” – who made it three of the top four finishers for Ineos – “did amazingly well, too. It was great for the team.
How it unfolded
Of the early starters, Jan Tratnik (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was the first to set a notable time, the veteran Slovenian allrounder moving to the top of the leaderboard when he clocked…
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