As it happened: Filippo Ganna wins stage 14 time trial at the Giro d'Italia 2020

How the 34.1km time trial on the Giro's 14th stage unfolded

The second time trial of this year's Giro d'Italia comes right at the end of the second week and is a classic looking Giro TT route.

The mid-race TTs at the Giro are often known as wine trials as they seem to repeatedly take place in famous wine areas. This year the race is going through Prosecco country on a hilly 34.1km course from Conegliano to Valdobbiadene.

There are three time checks, with the first after just 7.4km, but at the top of a category four 1.1km climb that averages a 12.3 per cent gradient, maxing out at 18 per cent, so bike changes are possible with a potential of three changes, but with the climb so early on in the day that is doubtful.

The next two splits are on flatter terrain at 17.1 and 25.1km into the ride before the route begins to climb again. Not as challenging as the first wall they had to face, this is more of a drag that will really take it out of the already screaming legs.

A swift descent takes the riders down to the finish with three sharp turns in the last kilometre before a small kick up to the line in the last 400 metres, averaging just five per cent.

 

The riders fighting for pink will see this as the first proper opportunity to take time out of the young Portuguese leader, João Almeida (Deceuninck - Quick-Step).

Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) and Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-McLaren), both second and third overall, probably have the best chance of doing this as they are most likely the strongest on this style of TT.

But Almeida put in an incredible display on stage one between Monreale and Palermo to come second just behind Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), who is no doubt the favourite to win his third stage of the race.

A rider who will be hoping not to lose too much time will be high flying 37-year-old, Domenico Pozzovivo (NTT Pro Cycling), who is in the climbing form of his life, but may suffer on the TT bike.

Other stage favourites aside from world champion, Ganna, are Victor Campenaerts (NTT Pro Cycling), Rohan Dennis (Ineos Grenadiers), Alex Dowsett (Israel Start-Up Nation), Jonathan Castroviejo (Ineos Grenadiers) and Jan Tratnik (Bahrain-McLaren).

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