It was touch and go, but after losing a few seconds to the pink jersey early in the mostly flat course, Filippo Ganna finally took his desperately sought-after TT victory on stage 14 of the 2024 Giro d’Italia. Meanwhile, Tadej Pogačar’s runner-up finish saw him increase his overall lead to 3:41 over now-second-overall Geraint Thomas on a good day for the Ineos Grenadiers.
- The second and last ITT of the Giro was significantly flatter than the first, which was won so convincingly by Pogačar via the tough finishing climb. There were just a few rollers along the 31.2-kilometre route, the worst of them a 700-metre ramp of 5.7% average at the 12-kilometre mark. Then from the halfway point, it was flat or downhill almost all the way to the finish on the edge of Lake Garda.
- After finishing second to Pogačar on stage 7, Ganna was on fire for stage 14, setting a modest best time at the first checkpoint before ripping through the rest of the course, ultimately setting a time one minute 26 seconds faster than his teammate Tobias Foss who had barely spent a sweaty minute in the hot seat before congratulating his fellow former-world champion.
- Luke Plapp came close – or closer than anyone else besides the top GC favourite(s) with a time two seconds faster than Foss, showing off his Aussie stripes in style against formidable opposition with a steadily paced effort (fourth at first check (at the time), third at second, second at the finish). The 23-year-old ultimately finished fifth.
- On an otherwise great day for the Ineos Grenadiers, Magnus Sheffield had a pretty nasty crash while flying through the course, not long after clocking a time just 39 seconds slower than Ganna through the second timing point, which made him faster by quite a margin than anyone else at that stage. The 22-year-old crossed the line in provisional seventh place, eventually settling in 12th having lost almost a minute after his crash.
- As the GC top 10 got underway, Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) showed he was on some great form with what ended up being the third-best TT of the day, seeing him march up the standings and closer to the white jersey of Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious), although the young Italian also had a great ride, only losing twelve seconds to his Dutch rival.
- Just off the GC podium, Ben O’Connor had one of the time trials of his career, improving on his 11th place on stage 7 to snag seventh and threaten the GC podium, now just 39 seconds down on third place.
- Elsewhere in the hotly contested race for second, third-overall Geraint Thomas had already taken 19 seconds out of second-place Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe) at the first time check, already up-ending their placings with over 20 km still to race. By the finish, the Welshman had set a time good enough to take 31 seconds out of the Colombian and land fourth place on the stage.
- Then came Pogačar who flew through the first ever-so-slightly hillier portion of the stage to go four seconds faster than Ganna at the first timing point, and at halfway, on-screen graphics suggested the gap hovered around two seconds. It was touch and go as the parcours flattened out.
- However, there was a 14-second swing in Ganna’s favour at the second time check, and by the finish – two hours after Ganna had taken the hot seat – the Italian national champion was able to breathe a sigh of relief as Pogačar powered up the finishing straight to take second on the stage 29 seconds slower than Ganna.
- While Pogačar has, obviously, extended his lead yet again, there was a fair bit of movement behind him in the GC standings. With Einer Rubio (Movistar) falling out of the top 10, Alex Baudin (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) now sits 10th almost nine minutes down on the pink jersey. A little further up, Romain Bardet (DSM-firmenich PostNL) and Lorenzo Fortunato (Astana Qazaqstan) suffered predictable slippage, as Filippo Zana (Jayco-AlUla) and Arensman advance one and four places apiece.
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GC Top 10 after stage 14
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Quote of the day
Ganna had a long time to wait in the hot seat, and when the moment finally came, relief soon gave way to speechless emotion.
“Today I suffered a lot. I was just speaking with Jonathan Milan – for him, it’s 70 seconds [of sprinting], and then you know immediately if you win or not. Today, I had to wait two hours.”
Ganna’s last victory was eight months ago at the Vuelta a España, and this is his first Giro win since 2021 where he successfully book-ended his home Grand Tour with the ITTs that opened and closed the race.
“In the end, [I’m] a little bit blocked with emotions because to win in Italy after a lot of time without a win is a really intense moment. Especially here, across the lake, it’s like a second home for me. It’s nice to be here and to also see G [Thomas] arrive really well for the GC. We keep going for more seconds. Now, tomorrow it’s a really intense day and we need to fight with the heart and with the head.”
Brief analysis
- There are now two teams with multiple riders in the GC top ten, Ineos Grenadiers boasting second and sixth with Thomas and Arensman, and Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale now fourth and tenth with O’Connor and Baudin. Sure, the margins are not insignificant, O’Connor for instance 4:35 down on Pogačar, but both teams are in sturdy, if not strong, positions going into the third week.
- Thomas has promised to race this whole weekend aggressively, saying in his own Watts Occurring podcast that “The Giro starts this weekend.” After stage 14 – in which Thomas moved up to second overall but lost another 45 seconds to Pogačar – there is a very tough mountain stage to Livigno, a “very very important day,” where the 2018 Tour de France champion is threatening to make a move. With Arensman now much better placed after his own brilliant ITT and moving towards his preferred terrain – he’s a former Giro Queen Stage winner – the Ineos Grenadiers take renewed confidence into the high mountains.
- All that said, with Pogačar’s extended lead (3:41) and a team oozing with confidence if less obvious climbing talent, it’s hard to see anyone out-smarting the pink jersey, short of creating a combined alliance among several GC squads, and even then … On his current form, Pogačar just has to follow moves, and if the past few weeks are anything to go on, he’ll have more ammunition than any of his rivals, eventually leaving them behind to go after a fourth stage win thank you very much.
- Incidentally, both Mikkel Bjerg (9th) and Magnus Sheffield (12th) were clearly given the green light to race for a result in the ITT, and what they gained ranges from questionable to potentially disastrous. Both are valuable for their leaders, Bjerg showing off immense horsepower on all terrains and Sheffield too, so if there’s a price to be paid, especially for Sheffield’s crash, their teams may regret the all-out efforts at Lake Garda.
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