Giro d'Italia leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) put in a stunning ride in the first individual time trial of the 2024 edition, rocketing up the category 4 climb at the end of the 40.6km course from Foligno to Perugia to snatch the stage victory.
Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), who spent the better part of the day in the hot seat, shook his head as the maglia rosa turned around a 44-second deficit at the bottom of the climb into a defeat by 17 seconds.
Magnus Sheffield made it two Ineos riders on the stage podium, taking third at 49 seconds.
"Finally after World Championships last year, today was my first race on the TT bike again," Pogačar said.
"It was a lot of preparation for this and a lot of ups and downs since last year in the time trial, so I'm super happy that today I felt good."
Pacing was crucial for the stage, which started mostly flat but ended with a 6.6km ascent, and Pogačar metered his effort perfectly.
"I started with an easier pace, I had to get used to the TT bike," he said. "I paced myself until the climb. I'm super happy with the day on the bike."
It goes without saying that Pogačar put the boots to his general classification rivals, finishing two full minutes faster than Ineos' Geraint Thomas.
Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe) went 11 seconds quicker than Thomas to move into second place in the overall standings, 2:36 behind Pogačar, with Thomas third at 2:46.
Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) rocketed up the overall standings despite dropping his chain on course and giving up around 30 seconds, moving up seven spots into fourth at 3:33.
Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) also climbed up the rankings, moving into fifth at 3:42 and pushing Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma-Lease a Bike) out of the white jersey.
How it unfolded
If the first weekend of the Giro d'Italia was the aperitivo and antipasto, the first individual time trial provided the overall contenders a hearty primo to sink their teeth into before Saturday's secondo.
A stiff climb at the end of the 40.6-kilometre route from Foligno to Perugia wasn't exactly in the favour of pure time trialists but the strong men still stacked the early standings.
Josef Cerny (Soudal-Quickstep) set the quickest early time before Max Walscheid (Jayco AlUla) went one second quicker. The German hardly had time to get to the hot seat before his time was eclipsed by Daan Hoole (Lidl-Trek) by nearly a minute.
Lorenzo Milesi (Movistar), the under-23 world time trial champion, put 20 seconds into Hoole's time but not long after, Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates) - a three-time under-23 world champion - knocked 16 seconds off the Italian's time.
Bjerg's time lasted until Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) rocketed through the course, passing rider after rider who started before him and knocking 1:39 off Bjerg's time.
Few riders could come close to Ganna's time - his teammates Magnus Sheffield and Thymen Arensman came through 32 and 43 seconds slower, respectively, while Bora-Hansgrohe's Max Schachmann finished 48 seconds slower.
Then, it was time to find out how the overall contenders would fare.
Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), who started the stage 2:50 down on Pogačar, slotted in ahead of Bjerg, 1:04 down on Ganna but noticeably up on many of the GC contenders. The Italian moved up to eight in the overall standings at the day's end.
Double Australian champion Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) seemed to shrug off his big breakaway from the previous stage, coming through 1:28 behind Ganna. He climbed into fifth in the GC standings.
Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma-Lease a Bike) looked to be struggling in the flat opening section, coming through the check at the base of the climb 2:43 down on Ganna and, importantly, 8 seconds behind Plapp in the white jersey competition and dropping to seventh place overall.
Thomas came through 1:27 behind his teammate at the second check but Pogačar was on a strong ride, going 40 seconds quicker at the same point. While the race leader and Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe) made up ground on the final climb, Thomas faded but still held onto third place in the overall standings.
Results
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