Filippo Ganna tore through the final third of Thursday’s shortened individual time trial to win stage 18 of the Vuelta a España in Valladolid, and third-placed João Almeida gained 10 seconds on the overall leader, Jonas Vingegaard.
Ganna, the Italian time-trial specialist, repeated his success of two years ago in the same city but had an agonisingly long wait after the Ineos Grenadiers rider was fifth out of the gate, setting a time of 13 minutes.
With the aim of ensuring greater protection for the stage after the disruptions caused by pro-Palestinian protesters during this year’s race, the organisers of La Vuelta decided to shorten the route to 12.2km instead of the scheduled 27.2km.
“Obviously, with the news of the change in the parcours last night it was a bit strange, but I tried to do all the best today,” Ganna said. “I hope it’s enough, we cross the fingers. If someone was stronger than me, I will just say ‘chapeau’.”
Nobody was stronger, though the Australian Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) came close, finishing one second off the Italian to take second place, with his teammate Almeida a further seven seconds behind, and now 40 seconds off Vingegaard.
