Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) has taken his fifth Giro d'Italia stage win in eight months and is back in the maglia rosa after winning the opening TT of the race's 2021 edition in Turin today.
The world champion was the red hot favourite to win today, after winning three of the TT stages last year and a road stage. And though his form has been a little off in recent weeks, he came good today on the 8.6km course around the streets of Turin.
It was a day when Nicolas Roche (Team DSM) put in a very solid ride, beating many of the general classification riders through he is not riding for GC himself.
Compatriot Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) goes into this race looking for a top 10 on GC and at least one stage win and even a place on the final podium of the stars aligned for him. Today he lost time, as expected.
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Ganna claimed the victory from two of Jumbo Visma's young up and coming riders; Edoardo Affini in 2nd at 10 seconds and Tobias Foss 3rd at 13 seconds.
Then came the first general classification rider, and one of the stars of the race last year; João Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) in 4th at 17 seconds.
His team mate, Remco Evenepoel, was the only other general classification rider in the top 10, placing 7th at 19 seconds though he was riding his first race since his serious crash at Il Lombardia last August.
Nicolas Roche was 46th at 40 seconds and that reflects the good form we have seen from him in recent weeks. Roche's team leaders - Jai Hindley and Romain Bardet - were both slower than the Irishman today. Hindley was 73rd at 46 seconds and Bardet 91st at 52 seconds.
Dan Martin, for whom any TT must be endured and survived, was 108th at 57 seconds. That time loss is not good news for Martin, but it's far from fatal for his chances in the weeks ahead.
Through his career the TT has almost always been his weakness and today losing 40 seconds to Almeida and 39 seconds to Evenepoel was bad news. However, other big names such as Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) and Simon Yates (BikeExchange) out only 19 seconds into the Irishman.
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