It’s the first week of October in the Year of Our Lord 2020 so OF COURSE it’s stage 1 of the Giro! The fight for pink opened with a tricksy time trial on tricksy downhill roads, with a tricksy wind to catch the unwary. No autumnal squall was going to put new time trial world champion Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) off his pedal stroke. The Italian purred like a panther through the streets of Palermo to take stage victory and switch his rainbow skinsuit for the maglia rosa. Fellow Grand Tour debutants Joao Almeida (Deceuninck Quickstep) and Mikkel Bjerg (UAE-Team Emirates) rounded out the podium, both at 22 seconds down.
