Giro d’Italia: Filippo Ganna roars into pink jersey with opening stage victory

Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) ripped to victory at the opening stage of the Giro d’Italia on Saturday.

The TT world champion went 10 seconds faster than second-place Edoardo Affini (Jumbo-Visma) to score the race’s first pink jersey on the pan-flat Turin time trial, repeating his opening stage victory of 2020.

Jumbo-Visma took a two-three on the podium with Tobias Foss finishing third.

There were some exceptional performances out there today but this was next level. What a bike rider 🙇🏻‍♂️
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🇮🇹 #Giro #Giro104 #Giro2021 pic.twitter.com/FVbr1GgVrz

— Velon CC (@VelonCC) May 8, 2021

Ganna’s dominant time over the short, technical circuit proved that the world champ’s recent deviation from his previous best was only short-term.

“I didn’t feel ready for this time trial. After Tour de Romandie, my morale wasn’t too high, but now it’s back,” he said. “I’m really happy.”

Back to back stage one victories at the #Giro.@GannaFilippo in pink. It just feels right 💗.

Can we get some 👍s for Filippo in the replies? pic.twitter.com/h3p24RXxyh

— INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) May 8, 2021

Almeida, Evenepoel, Vlasov early winners in GC pack

Of the long list of GC contenders, João Almeida, Remco Evenepoel (both Deceuninck-Quick-Step) and Aleksander Vlasov (Astana Premier Tech) took slim early gains. Almeida finished fourth on the stage to emerge at the top of the pink jersey players on the 8.6km opening test.

Remco Evenepoel looked red-hot in his first race back after eight months away from racing, finishing seventh on the stage and right at the top of the GC contenders, just one second behind his teammate Almeida.

Pre-race pink jersey favorites Simon Yates (Bike Exchange) and Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers)finished within one second of each other at 9.25 and 9.26, respectively – 21 and 22-seconds down on Almeida.

Outside contenders Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers), Hugh Carthy (EF Education Nippo), George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma) and Vincenzo Nibali (Trek Segafredo) finished within seconds of Yates and Bernal as the classification pack sits tightly coiled.

Jai Hindley, Romain Bardet (both DSM), Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Victorious) came out losers of the day, all around 10 seconds or more back on Yates and Bernal.

Jumbo-Visma bosses the hot seat before Ganna comes calling

Jonathan Castroviejo (Ineos Grenadiers), Matthias Brändle (Israel Start-Up Nation) and then Foss were the first riders to enjoy time in the hot seat after starting off ahead of the main favorites and GC contenders. Foss wasn’t sitting down long before teammate Affini dethroned him with his blazing time that would see him finish second on the stage.

Affini was still in the hotseat when the major players rolled down the ramp in the final hour, with Almeida pushing close to the fastest time.

Ganna was one of the last down the ramp, and as soon as he went through the intermediate time check it seemed inevitable that “Top Ganna” would ride into pink, bettering Affini at the mid-way point and taking even more time in the back-half.

American grand tour debutant Matteo Jorgenson put in a strong ride to finish 34th on the stage, 35 seconds back on Ganna.

Ganna will wear his pink jersey for stage 2 on Sunday, which is likely to finish with a sprint in Novara.