NEW BEST TIME by the Italian champion, Filippo Ganna: 35:02, average speed of 53.43 km/h. Monster peformance. I refuse to believe that someone can beat him today, there's no climb for Pogacar to push thermonuclear watts this time. #GirodItalia
Filippo Ganna denies Tadej Pogacar another Giro d'Italia stage win with phenomenal time-trial performance
CyclingSaturday, 18 May 2024 at 17:19
Lighting has not struck twice with Tadej Pogacar being denied another stage win by the sensational Filippo Ganna on the stage 14 individual time-trial at the 2024 Giro d'Italia.
Although he wasn't the first man down the start ramp, Soudal - Quick-Step's Josef Cerny was the first man to arrive at the finish line, setting an early benchmark time for the bigger names to chase, with his effort of 36:58. The Czech rider didn't last long in the hotseat however, with first Daan Hoole and then Edoardo Affini both going quicker in turn.
Movistar Team's Lorenzo Milesi entered the tricky and technical finale within sight of Affini's time but couldn't quite navigate those final bends in time, missing out by just 2 seconds to his compatriot. The man to knock Affini out of the hotseat was INEOS Grenadiers' Tobias Foss, who clocked 36:28, 4 seconds quicker than the Italian.
Sadly for the former world champion however, he didn't last long at all as the pace-setter. Just a few moments later, Foss' INEOS Grenadiers teammate, Filippo Ganna absolutely destroyed all previous times set to move into the hotseat by a comfortable margin. Crossing the line in an incredible 35:02, Ganna was a simply ridiculous, 1:26 quicker than anyone else to complete the course.
Although some notable time-trial riders such as Mikkel Bjerg, Will Barta and Luke Plapp followed soon after Ganna, no one was able to get anywhere near the Italian, with thoughts already turning to whether or not Tadej Pogacar was now the only man with a chance of denying the Italian national time-trial champion another Giro d'Italia stage win. Magnus Sheffield was looking like he might become the first man to get within a minute of Ganna. As he pushed hard though, sadly for the American, his effort was somewhat ruined late on by a crash.
As the podium hopefuls took to the course, the likes of Romain Bardet, Lorenzo Fortunato and Einer Rubio were losing significant time. Conversely, riders such as Antonio Tiberi and Thymen Arensman were making good ground. Notably, at the first time check, Geraint Thomas had already put 19 seconds into Daniel Martinez and provisionally moved up to 2nd overall. Tadej Pogacar though, was 4 seconds quicker than Ganna at the first time check sending early shockwaves.
At the line, Arensman finished 1:06 down on Ganna in provisional 2nd on the day. Rubio however, lost over 4 minutes on Ganna, shipping time to GC rivals such as Arensman. Tiberi couldn't quite match Arensman's time but crossed the line in a provisional 4th on the day, solidifying his top-5 status, but only gaining a handful of seconds on Ben O'Connor, who looked broken as he crossed the line absolutely exhausted.
At the second time check, the gap between Thomas and Martinez had stretched to 32 seconds. Pogacar meanwhile, had lost a few seconds, reaching the second time check 10 seconds down on Ganna. Thomas crossed the line 1:14 down on Ganna and with Martinez crossing the line 1:45 down, the Welshman's rise back to 2nd was confirmed. In the fight for the stage win though, Pogacar was losing slightly more time in comparison to Ganna, with the Italian finally securing that much-desired stage win this year.
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