Coincidence of fate, the beginning of the ‘Race of the Two Seas’ was passed through water. The 58th edition of Tirreno-Adriatico started with an individual time trial in an Italian town of Lido di Camaiore in which the rain worsened from early in the morning. However, the best news in favor of the show was to see that despite the fact that it did not rain to everyone’s liking, the men of the general are in a handkerchief. Of all of them, the theoretical virtual leader would be, Thymen Arensmann, albeit with meager income.
A lot of expectation also for the return to the competition of Primoz Roglic, who appeared with a remarkable performance that helped him gain a few valuable seconds, although insignificant, over two of the great contenders for the title, Enric Mas and Mikel Landa. The Slovenian led the Balearic Islands by 11″ and the Alava by 26″. The winner of the day was Filippo Ganna, who finally got even for his latest time trial results. The Italian had not raised his arms in his specialty since the prologue of the Tour of Germany, last August, which helped him to take the first Azzurra jersey of leader with total authority. just an amazing Lennard Kamna, who finished second, he crossed the finish line less than 30″ behind the Gigante de Verbania.
The first hours of the day were a complete deluge. The route, despite having long straights, had a couple of very tight corners that with so much water made your hair stand on end. This notably hurt the first runners who took the start, especially a wout van aert which under normal conditions was a clear candidate for victory. The Belgian, whose intention is to shine towards the end of the week, decided not to risk it and when he crossed the finish line he was barely sixth. There was still a world left and the sky began to clear…
Around 2:00 p.m. the rain stopped and the road dried up, conditions that favored the vast majority of favourites. Hence Jai Hindley, for whom the time trial is a pain in the ass, signed the best performance of his career in this discipline to take the second best provisional time, behind a great Magnus Sheffield. Roglic opted for a balance between risk and safety, aware of what was to come, to finally finish 12th. despite the flashes of Brandon McNulty, the aforementioned Kämna or Joao Almeida, Ganna started in the final stretch to put things in place and get the 21st time trial win of his record (23 victories). This Tuesday, foreseeable arrival at the sprint in Follonica.
Results and general of the 1st stage
1st Filippo Ganna (Ineos) – 12:28
2nd Lennard Kämna (Bora) – at 28″
3rd Magnus Sheffield (Ineos) – 31″
6th Thymen Arensman (Ineos) – 39″
12th Primoz Roglic (Jumbo) – 49″
23rd enric mas (Movistar) – 1:00
49th Michael Landa (Bahrain) – 1:15