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Juan Ayuso beats Filippo Ganna in Tirreno-Adriatico opening time trial

Vingegaard 22 seconds in arrears after Stage 1

March 4, 2024
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For the first time this season, there are two UCI WorldTour stage races running concurrently. On Sunday, Olav Kooij earned the first leader’s jersey of Paris-Nice, the Race to the Sun, with a sprint victory, and on Monday Juan Ayuso pulled on the first leader’s jersey of Tirreno-Adriatico, the Race of the Two Seas, after winning a short opening time trial in Lido di Camaiore, Italy.

The Course

At 10 km, this year’s opening time trial was two kilometers shorter than last year’s, with the intermediate time check at the 5.5 km mark. Some parts of the route were wet.

Early in the day, when the roads were wetter, Søren Wærenskjold of Uno-X Mobility set the fastest time with 11:39. Jonas Vingegaard was surprisingly seven seconds slower.

Juan Ayuso first clipped Wærenskjold’s best intermediate time by fractions of a second, and then knocked the Norwegian off the hot seat, 15 seconds faster. Jonathan Milan and Josef Černý wedged themselves between Wærenskjold and Ayuso.

The cycling world continued to snicker at Visma-Lease a Bike’s immense, Darth Vader-like TT helmets. Some Dutch Bees were also having a laugh.

With all the riders on the road, it seemed like it would be up to Filippo Ganna to beat Ayuso’s time. He was two seconds slower at the intermediate check. He made up a second in the latter half of the route, but he came up a little short. Israel-Premier Tech’s Brit Ethan Vernon was the surprise third place on Monday.

Ganna was great as usual, but came up a second short.

Besides Ayuso and Vingegaard, teammates Dani Martinez and Jai Hindley were the other GC favorites to finish in the top 20. Enric Mas, Ben O’Connor and Cian Uijtdebroeks were outside the top 20.

Tuesday’s parcours suggests the sprinters will have their day.

2024 Tirreno-Adriatico Stage 1
1) Juan Ayuso (Spain/UAE-Emirates) 11:24
2) Filippo Ganna (Italy/Ineos) +0:01
3) Ethan Vernon (Great Britain/Israel-Premier Tech) +0:12