"I'm starting to have good sensations" - 'Top Ganna' flies at Tirreno-Adriatico ITT

INEOS Grenadiers have taken another strong win today but it is Filippo Ganna who will truly be happy today at Tirreno-Adriatico. The Italian time-trial specialist as in recent years struggled with the surge of GC contenders beating him in all terrains, but today in Italy he was nowhere close to being matched.

"Today I did a really good test and I'm very happy. In the car Dario (Cioni, ed.) with the microphone gave me an extra push to push until the finish line," Ganna said in a post-race interview. "I knew that at the intermediate point I had the same time as Ayuso but in the final stretch I managed to be more consistent and I managed to find a good result".

"I think I did really well, I feel motivated for this week of racing and also for the month that awaits me, I trained a lot and finally I'm starting to have good sensations in the saddle too".

In 2024 he was the man to beat, and was indeed beaten by a surprising Ayuso who stormed through the pan-flat time-trial in Lido di Camaiore. The same could have happened today, as Ayuso crossed the line and into the hot seat (whilst being faster than the Italian in the intermediate split), but now Ganna got his revenge.

A formidable second half of the time-trial saw him cross the line a whole 23 seconds faster than the Spaniard - a gap so big that he can realistically keep this lead for several days and even contest for a place in the Top10 in the final overall classification. He did this at an average speed of 56.1Km/h.

"Obviously it is much better to win by 23 seconds than the disappointment of last year. Now I have to think about recovering my energy and start understanding what I can do in the next few days," he concludes. "My legs are definitely fine and so I hope to continue like this also in the road stages”.