Giro d'Italia time trial analysis: Tadej Pogacar out of everyone's league, all of INEOS doing well except Geraint Thomas and Ben O'Connor revival?

That Tadej Pogacar absolutely annihilated his opponents in the uphill section of the first Giro d'Italia time trial to Perugia, that we already knew. The Slovenian put in a stellar performance which saw him turn around a 45-second margin in final 7 kilometers to win by 15 seconds. Let's see some other interesting pacing strategies further down the result sheet.

From a quick look, you could say INEOS Grenadiers rode a near-perfect timetrial, completing the human podium. Filippo Ganna pulled off a world class performance on the flat first 34 kilometers of the timetrial, destroying his nearest competition, but losing to monstrous Pogacar uphill. In addition, Thymen Arensman arrived third and Magnus Sheffield fourth - both with some of the best climbing times as well.

While Geraint Thomas' teammates did a great job, the Welshman himself had to settle for just 10th time, something that doesn't bode well with his GC ambitions. What did go wrong? The 38-year-old clocked 'only' 24th best time on the third split, where he was 1:20 slower than Pogacar, and even 17 seconds slower than his much heavier teammate. Reason? Some say a wrong choice of chainring...

Further down the result, we can see Ben O'Connor with third fastest ascent, just three seconds down on second overall Dani Martínez and 35 seconds behind Pogacar. Both can be satisfied with their time trials. This result is a testament to the Australian's good form, which should see him mix himself back in the podium battle in upcoming stages. And let's not forget O'Connor had a mechanical that cost him up to 30 seconds in earlier parts of the time trial.