Giro d’Italia stage 14: Filippo Ganna wins as João Almeida retains pink

Italian time trial specialist Filippo Ganna of Team Ineos-Grenadiers took his third stage victory of the 2020 Giro d’Italia on Saturday, winning the stage 14 individual time trial from Conegliano to Valdobbiadene.

Ganna completed the hilly 34.1-kilometer route in 42:40.47, 26 seconds ahead of teammate Rohan Dennis, who finished in second place on the day. American Brandon McNulty (UAE-Team Emirates) was third, at 1:09, and landing in 10th place on the GC with the performance.

Ganna also won the stage 1 time trial, slipping on the pink leader’s jersey for a short time, and also took the win on stage 5, when he rode off the front of a breakaway.

Just prior to the start of the Giro, Ganna won the 2020 UCI world time trial championship.

“Every victory is important for me, and in this Giro, we have a really strong team. We win everywhere, and we are really happy,” the big Italian said.

Ganna was circumspect about the racing ahead and commented that, “It’s harder. We say to save energy to arrive to Milano but also not have too much cold.” And when asked about the final stage time trial, he modestly said, “Yes, we have one more race with the goal.”

In the GC battle, current leader João Almeida retained his pink jersey and actually distanced himself from his rivals, coming through the third time check in seventh position, moving into sixth place on the day by the finish.

“I did better than I thought. I’m so happy with the result. In the end, it was very positive today. I was expecting to maybe win time on a few but not all of them, especially Kelderman, because he’s a really good TT guy.”

The 22-year-old Deceuninck-Quick-Step rider continued, “In the end on the last climb I was feeling good. I went deep because I knew the end was descending. I didn’t take risks on the descent on the corners, so maybe I lost a little bit there, but in the end, I think it was good.”

With one more day of racing – a mountain stage — before the second rest day, Almeida is circumspect about defending his position against the other GC favorites.

“So far I have been a good climber. It will be a hard day. I have a minute to Kelderman so I can keep it easy and go easy and do my climb as well. We start tomorrow with no pressure,” he said.

Stage 15 begins with a challenging stage that includes four major climbs, including the punishing summit finish to Piancavallo. The 17-kilometer above-category climb includes ramps of 14 percent over the opening kilometers.