Giro d'Italia 2021 cycling - Impressive Filippo Ganna tops opening time-trial in style in Turin

ByTom Owen

Updated 08/05/2021 at 20:04 GMT

Italy's Filippo Ganna produced a stunning performance to top the timesheet after the opening time-trial of the 2021 Giro d'Italia on Saturday. The 24-year-old thrived in the sunshine in Turin as he powered to the top of the standings in very impressive fashion. Ganna was brimming with confidence and stormed home with Edoardo Affini in second.

Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) was the star of the show on day one of the 2021 Giro d'Italia as the Italian demonstrated his class to lead the opening standings.

The 24-year-old stormed home in a time of 8'47" to take the Maglia Rosa in style ahead of Edoardo Affini and Tobias Foss (both Jumbo Visma).

Ganna would not be denied after he usurped Affini's mark in blistering fashion in front of the Turin spectators. Luis Leon Sanchez registered the slowest time of the day after a rear wheel blowout and change onto a replacement road bike.

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It was Victor Campenaerts of Qhubeka Assos who was first to spend any time in the hotseat, after beating the times of the two riders that started the course immediately before him. Nevertheless, it was an underperformance for the Belgian – and he was quickly dethroned by Jonathan Castroviejo of Ineos Grenadiers, the Spanish ex-national champion.

Tobias Foss, the young Norwegian prospect was the next major time of the day coming in at exactly 9’00” – and he occupied the leading position of the provisional standings until Affini came along and became the first rider to go sub-nine minutes.

One big surprise was the underwhelming result of Remi Cavgagna (Deceuninck QuickStep) who couldn’t beat Foss’ time and eventually came away with fifth on the stage behind his teammate Joao Almeida.

And then, of course, along came Ganna. He beat Affini’s time – which had stood for around an hour – and took the stage victory, as well as the first pink jersey of 2021. He becomes the first rider to take victory in consecutive opening stages of the Giro since Francesco Moser in the 1980s.

Team Ineos rider Italy's Filippo Ganna competes in the first stage of the Giro d'Italia 2021 cycling race, a 8.6 km individual time trial on May 8, 2021 in Turin

Image credit: Getty Images

Group of favourites

The best of the GC men was Almeida, who secured fourth place in the stage ahead of his two teammates, Remco Evenepoel (7th) and Cavagna (4th). After the Deceuninck riders, it was Aleksandr Vlasov of Astana who had the best performance, coming in 24 seconds down on Ganna, with Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers) another 11 seconds in arrears.

Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange), Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), Hugh Carthy (EF Education Nippo), George Bennett (Jumbo Visma), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) and Vincenzo Nibali (Trek Segafredo) all finished within three seconds of one another.

The biggest losers on the GC were Dan Martin (Israel StartUp Nation), who lost 57 seconds to Ganna and 19" to the best of that closely-matched group of overall contenders, and Emmanuel Buchmann (Bora Hansgrohe), who was one second faster than Martin.

Highlights: 'Very special' Ganna tops opening Giro TT in Turin

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