ITALY knew their man could beat the clock, now he’s beating everyone else too, writes JOHN TREVORROW:
THE Giro d’Italia just keeps throwing up surprises.
The one person I would not have picked to win Wednesday’s tough 225 km fifth stage from Mileto to Camigliatello Silano was Filippo Ganna (Ineos-Grenadiers). The big Italian powerhouse may be the world champion in the individual time trial on the road and the individual pursuit on the track, and sure he did win the opening time trial stage, but at 83 kg he is the heaviest rider in the field and there was no way, I thought, he could get himself over the 22 km climb before the finish.
Ganna is currently the best rider racing against the clock on flat roads but he had never won a road race in his professional career. Well he has now and it is a victory worth writing about.
This Giro was starting to look like a similar nightmare to the Tour de France for the Ineos-Grenadiers. After losing race favourite Geraint Thomas with a fractured hip they needed a stand-out performance from one of the team to resurrect some respect and Ganna certainly delivered that.
The breakaway finally got clear after an hour of racing. Initially there were only four, Jan Tratnik (Bahrain McLaren), Carl Frederik Hagen (Lotto Soudal) and Ineos Grenadiers teammates Ganna and Salvatore Puccio. They were soon joined by Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates), Hector Carretero (Movistar), Jhonathan Restrepo (Androni-Giocattoli-Sidermec) and Edoardo Zardini (Vini Zabù-Brado-KTM) making it eight up front with 165km to go.
The group had a maximum lead of five minutes but a concerted effort from the GC teams reduced that margin to two minutes as they approached the final climb. At this stage it looked like the breakaway’s chance of success was zero but Spaniard Carretero attacked and was joined by the surprising Ganna.
Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) and Einar Rubio (Movistar) jumped clear of the chasing peloton with 30km to go and actually caught Ganna and Carretero on the final climb. De Gendt and Rubio started playing a tactical game and then the amazing Ganna attacked clear alone. This is where it got very interesting. With the main GC contenders closing in Ganna just accelerated away. The 24 year old Italian had a minute lead at the summit and then it was put away the glasses as he gave a superb display of descending on the wet 10 km descent to take the stage by 34 seconds.
“I shouldn’t even have gone in break today,” a surprised Ganna said. “I was supposed to just help Salvatore Puccio. But after 40 kilometres of attacks, I told him to get on my wheel and we got away with the others.
“They were attacking me on the climb so the only thing I could do was stay calm and then go for it myself. Last night Geraint (Thomas) told me to go for it and go in the break, and so I did.”
“It was hard on the climb,” Ganna added. “I’m 83 kilograms, so it’s not easy for me to climb but in the end I did a time trial to the finish. I had a problem with my radio and so just told myself to go full gas to the line.”
Austrian Patrick Konrad (Bora-hansgrohe) led in the chasers with Giro leader Joao Almeida third and all the main contenders comfortably in the peloton.
Leading Aussie Jai Hindley (Team Sunweb) is an impressive 11th only 1.33 seconds from the lead with Lucas Hamilton (Mitchelton-Scott) 17th at 2.47 and Chris Harper (Jumbo-Visma) 23rd at 4.57.
On the other side of Europe the Brabantse Pijl one day race in Belgian hosted an impressive field. The World champion Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) was obviously out to redeem himself from the premature celebration embarrassment in Liege last Sunday and although he did take the victory he almost did a repeat performance.
In a three man sprint Alaphilippe raced past Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R La Mondiale) in the final 200 metres and threw up his hands in celebration only to see Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Felix) flash up on the other side. It had to go to the photo to decide in the Frenchman’s favour.
In the women’s edition Australian Grace Brown (Mitchelton Scott) showed her brilliant second place in Liege last weekend was no fluke with her first victory in Europe. The 28 year old Aussie attacked with 17 km remaining and won alone from Sunweb duo Liane Lippert and Floortje Mackaij.
1 | Filippo Ganna (Ita) Ineos Grenadiers | 5:59:17 |
2 | Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe | 0:00:34 |
3 | Joao Almeida (Por) Deceuninck-Quickstep | |
4 | Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb | |
5 | Lucas Hamilton (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott | |
6 | Jai Hindley (Aus) Team Sunweb | |
7 | Harm Vanhoucke (Bel) Lotto Soudal | |
8 | Pello Bilbao (Spa) Bahrain McLaren | |
9 | Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team | |
10 | Fausto Masnada (Ita) CCC Team | |
11 | Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe | |
12 | Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Trek-Segafredo | |
13 | Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) NTT Pro Cycling | |
14 | Sergio Samitier Samitier (Spa) Movistar Team | |
15 | Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma | |
16 | Hermann Pernsteiner (Aut) Bahrain McLaren | |
17 | Jack Haig (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott | |
18 | Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) CCC Team | |
19 | Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers | |
20 | Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott | |
21 | Antonio Pedrero (Spa) Movistar Team | |
22 | Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Sunweb | |
23 | Tobias Foss (Nor) Team Jumbo-Visma | |
24 | Tanel Kangert (Est) EF Pro Cycling | 0:00:48 |
25 | Lawrence Warbasse (USA) AG2R la Mondiale | |
26 | Aurélien Paret Peintre (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale | |
27 | Koen Bouwman (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma | |
28 | Joe Dombrowski (USA) UAE Team Emirates | |
29 | Matteo Fabbro (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe | |
30 | Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas (Spa) Ineos Grenadiers | |
31 | Chris Harper (Aus) Team Jumbo-Visma | |
32 | Fabio Felline (Ita) Astana Pro Team |
GC after stage 5
1 | Joao Almeida (Por) Deceuninck-Quickstep | 17:06:23 |
2 | Pello Bilbao (Spa) Bahrain McLaren | 0:00:43 |
3 | Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb | 0:00:48 |
4 | Harm Vanhoucke (Bel) Lotto Soudal | 0:00:59 |
5 | Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Trek-Segafredo | 0:01:01 |
6 | Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) NTT Pro Cycling | 0:01:05 |
7 | Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team | 0:01:19 |
8 | Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma | 0:01:21 |
9 | Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe | 0:01:26 |
10 | Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe | 0:01:32 |
11 | Jai Hindley (Aus) Team Sunweb | 0:01:33 |
12 | Fausto Masnada (Ita) CCC Team | 0:01:38 |
13 | Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) CCC Team | 0:01:44 |
14 | Hermann Pernsteiner (Aut) Bahrain McLaren | 0:01:48 |
15 | Antonio Pedrero (Spa) Movistar Team | 0:01:56 |
16 | Sergio Samitier Samitier (Spa) Movistar Team | 0:02:12 |
17 | Lucas Hamilton (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott | 0:02:47 |
18 | Brandon McNulty (USA) UAE Team Emirates | 0:02:57 |
19 | Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers | 0:03:18 |
20 | James Knox (GBr) Deceuninck-Quickstep | 0:03:26 |
21 | Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott | 0:03:52 |
22 | Aurélien Paret Peintre (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale | 0:04:31 |
23 | Chris Harper (Aus) Team Jumbo-Visma | 0:04:57 |
24 | Koen Bouwman (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma | 0:05:17 |
25 | Tanel Kangert (Est) EF Pro Cycling | 0:05:39 |
26 | Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas (Spa) Ineos Grenadiers | 0:06:49 |
27 | Joe Dombrowski (USA) UAE Team Emirates | 0:07:15 |
28 | Tony Gallopin (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale | 0:07:33 |
29 | Lawrence Warbasse (USA) AG2R la Mondiale | 0:07:38 |
30 | Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Sunweb | 0:08:12 |
31 | Jack Haig (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott | 0:08:35 |
JOHN TREVORROW is a multiple Australian champion road racer and Olympian who has been doing media commentary at the Tour de France for more than 20 years.
Discussion about this post