Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) put in a stunning performance to win the opening time trial of the 2024 edition of Tirreno-Adriatico.
The 21-year-old out-performed none other than former time trial world champion Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), with Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) rounding out the day's podium by beating Ethan Vernon (Israel-Premier Tech) down to fourth by fractions of a second.
He also beat overwhelming Tirreno-Adriatico favourite Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) - who started the stage as the third rider - by 22 seconds.
Ayuso spent the better part of two hours in the hot seat after setting the quickest time - 11:24 for the 10km course - in the first wave of riders.
After the bulk of the remaining riders tried but failed to match the Spaniard's time, Ganna, the sixth to last rider, came the closest but fell short by a single second.
The result puts Ayuso into the general classification lead heading into stage 2, a mostly flat 198km stage from Camaiore to Follonica.
"I think everybody knew Ganna was going to be the big rival to try and beat me. He was there and then in the final until the last second, we still didn't know," Ayuso said.
"It's a very emotional victory, a very special one. I think it gets a good morale and good motivation for the week ahead."
With a weather forecast calling for increasing wind and rain, Vingegaard's team opted to have him start very early rather than as one of the last, as usually befits a rider of his reputation.
The decision backfired as the rain fell on the early riders. Even Sporting the bizarre new Giro time trial helmet didn't seem to help Vingegaard on the day. He clocked an 11:46 but was soon overtaken by Kevin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) - not a notable time trialist.
When the day was done, eight riders had beaten the Tour de France champion.
He wasn't the only contender undone by the conditions - Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R) also had to sacrifice speed to minimize the risk of crashing.
However, by the time Ayuso rolled down the start ramp, the rain had stopped and began to dry up, and he flew around the course to unseat Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X), beating him by 15 seconds.
"Before I started, I saw the times and the average speed was much less coming back then going due to the headwind," Ayuso said. "So I knew I had to save the legs and then when I turned around, I knew I was going to do a good time because I still hadn't gone full gas, and I was already at the same time in the intermediate.
"I didn't know in that moment that I could win against the GC guys. I didn't know that I was going to do a good time. Coming back, I just gave my all until the finish."
Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) did not benefit much from the more favourable course conditions and came through 33 seconds slower than Ayuso.
The course was almost entirely dry when Magnus Sheffield (Ineos) crashed in a left-hand turn. He was up and off quickly but lost any chance of a result in the short time trial.
Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) put in a strong ride in the first half, coming eight seconds shy at the intermediate split, but faded in the second part and ended 24 seconds down.
When Ganna came through a second slower than him, Ayuso could finally relax and, knowing the rest of the starters had been far down at the split, begin to celebrate his second win of the season.
With 22 seconds over Vingegaard in a race that is often won by less, Ayuso now finds himself as the man in the crosshairs of the Visma-Lease a Bike rider.
"For sure, he is going to be one of the toughest rivals we have in this race," Ayuso said of Vingegaard. "It's good to have this time ahead of him because for sure he's going to put up a battle, and it's gonna be very, very, very hard to beat him, but we're gonna give our best to try and win this race."
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