Ganna wins opening TT to lead Tirreno

Filippo Ganna made it a perfect start to Tirreno-Adriatico with a commanding victory in the opening stage time trial.

The Italian TT champion set a blistering time of 12 minutes and eight seconds across the 11.5-kilometre course in Lido di Camaiore, moving into the early race lead.

That effort was enough for victory by 22 seconds over teammate Thymen Arensman. The Dutchman was happy to hand over the hot seat to his fellow Grenadier on a day which saw him put key time into his GC rivals. 

Magnus Sheffield came within four tenths of making it a 1-2-3 on the day, eventually setting the fourth fastest time and claiming the white young rider's jersey.

After the stage Ganna said: "It's stage win number five for me in Tirreno and every time is special and complicated to do my best. It's never easy. Today in the middle of the stage I didn't feel good, but I kept on chasing. 

"Yesterday I was just focused on today. Tonight we will recover well and then tomorrow I will check the stage finish of tomorrow. I came here to Tirreno without the ambition to [target] the GC, just to do an amazing Tirreno and have the feeling for the Classics. This is a good starting point and now we'll see in the next few days what we can do in the race."