Filippo Ganna wins Stage 1 of Tirreno-Adriatico, taking short individual time trial ahead of Remco Evenepoel

Filippo Ganna powered to victory on the opening stage of Tirreno-Adriatico ahead of Remco Evenepoel. Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) won the individual time trial in 15 minutes and 18 seconds to beat one of the pre-race favourites Evenepoel (Quick-Step AlphaVinyl) by 11 seconds.

Ad/> The world time trial champion proved too strong on the 13.9km course, coming home comfortably ahead of the field. Cycling'It's like getting Usain Bolt to run a marathon' — Ganna on Grand Tour hopes23/12/2021 AT 17:13 “I love this race and today I show how much I want to win this race,” said Ganna afterwards.

“When you start there is a lot of headwind, we see the speed improve and at the moment, it is a good gap [to my opponents] but tomorrow is another day.” The race got underway on the sunny west coast of Italy, with a short individual time trial in Lido di Camaiore just to the north-west of Florence. The first of seven stages, this time trial was a real chance to lay down a marker in the race of the two seas.

It was a simple enough course too, one small right-hander towards the start and the hairpin at halfway as the riders turn for home. Defending champion and pre-race favourite Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) didn’t have last year’s rival Wout van Aert to contend with, the Belgian having opted for Paris-Nice this week with a quirk of the scheduling meaning these two races overlapped almost entirely.

He did have Evenepoel for company though, the Quick-Step AlphaVinyl rider the other pre-race favourite and one many have tipped for great things this season. Jakobsen wins Stage 2 of Paris-Nice Pogacar claims superb Strade Bianche win The course itself was flat and simply a race against the clock with the ominous mountains visible in the distance