Monday’s opening time trial at Tirreno-Adriatico, a no-frills, pan-flat run up and down Lido di Camaiore’s coastal road, passed largely without surprise on the results sheet. World time trial champion Filippo Ganna romped to victory, finishing 11 seconds clear of Remco Evenepoel and a further seven ahead of Tadej Pogačar, the week’s GC battle left poised in the Italian’s wake.
However, looking beyond the power and precision of the Italian’s 17th career time trial victory, some eagle-eyed viewers spotted something amiss – an abundance of spare bikes stacked atop the team car following him during the stage.
Ganna’s Ineos Grenadiers team weren’t preparing for a Michael Rasmussen-esque calamity on the 13.9-kilometre course, though – instead they were simply optimising their star rider’s aerodynamics.