Giro d’Italia 2020 Stage 14 - As it happened

Updated 17/10/2020 at 15:15 GMT

Filippo Ganna powered to a brilliant victory in the Stage 14 time trial at the Giro d'Italia. The Ineos Grenadiers TT specialist beat his team-mate Rohan Dennis into second, completing a hat-trick of stage wins at the Italian Grand Tour, and underlining his status as the best time trial cyclist in the world.

Team Ineos rider Italy's Filippo Ganna rides during the fourteenth stage of the Giro d'Italia 2020 cycling race, a 34,1-kilometer individual time trial between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene on October 17, 2020.

Image credit: Getty Images

Stage top 3

1. Filippo Ganna (Ineos)
2. Rohan Dennis (Ineos)
3. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates)

Almeida steps toward Milan, Ganna wins stage.

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A superb ride from Almeida sees him cross the line with a time of 44:21.

He takes sixth overall on the stage and increases his cushion in the lead of the maglia rosa. You can't ask for more than that from your GC leader, can you?

Kelderman crosses the line

The Dutchman has managed an impressive time of 44:27. It's good enough to secure him a top ten place on the stage and is a much better time than any of the GC contenders below him at the start of the day managed. That's fantastic news for Team Sunweb's leader and cements his second place overall.

45:34 for Nibali

It's a good time, but it's not great. It may just be good enough to see him sidle onto the podium overall.

Pello Bilbao is looking a bit as though he is flagging in the final part of this stage.

Jai Hindley to lose places

The Aussie who has been wearing the white jersey for Joao Almeida in the last days looks as though he'll tumble out of the top ten. That's not a great performance from him.

His team leader Kelderman, however, has put 40 seconds into Nibali at the final intermediate timing point. That's a very good sign for the Dutchman.

Majka manages magnificently

Rafal Majka crosses the line in 45:17. That's not earth-shattering, but it's good enough to keep him in contention for the general – and that's better than some people (me) expected from him today.

Pozzovivo, who started brightly, has lost a bit of time and is now well in the mid-pack of the GC men. He is through the final intermediate and just has the last climb to the finish to come.

Whoosh!

Almeida & McNulty are flying

The maglia rosa has gone nearly as quickly as McNulty to the first timing point. If he can sustain this effort and avoids blowing up, he could be on for a huge leap toward taking that jersey home with him. McNulty, meanwhile, has just powered over the finish line in an incredible time of 43:49.

Tao Geoghegan Hart has also crossed the line in 45:04.52, which is more than two minutes down on Ganna. The rest of the GC men will hope to fall somewhere between the time of McNulty and Geoghegan Hart – and slower than Geoghegan Hart and they risk losing places.

Everyone is on the road!

As the Portuguese race leader Almeida rolls down the ramp, the final participant in this time trial is underway.

Ahead of him, Nibali is not having his best day, while McNulty is absolutely flying. Rafal Majka has also done surprisingly well up to the first timing point, with Fuglsang also doing well. You'll remember the Dane had a really dismal opening TT and that has left him on the back foot ever since.

Pello Bilbao, having a strange sort of enchanted Giro, is a very good TTer and he has gone off very well also. Can he defend his podium place?

Nibali out of the starting house...

And the man carrying Italian hopes for an overall victory at this Giro begins his 45 minutes in purgatory.

While Nibali is a solid TTer, the next Italian to start Domenico Pozzovivo is not as feted in the discipline. He will have to produce something really fantastic if he wants to defend or even improve upon his current 4th place on GC.

McNulty cedes just five seconds to Ganna on the Muro

That is a massive start to his ride. He's a TT guy, so it's not wholly surprising, but if he can even get close to Ganna's time by the finish that will translate into some huge gains on GC.

Tao Geogehegan Hart is underway

And that signals the start of the guys riding for GC. Can the British rider get some intel from his stage-leading teammates Dennis and Ganna and maybe take this opportunity to enhance his GC standing?

Young American Brandon McNulty is also off the start ramp and making his way to the summit of the Muro di Ca' del Poggio.

Ganna's awesome numbers...

As we see Jonathan Castroviejo go slightly slower than Ganna at the first timing point, it's worth checking out this clip from earlier today when we got to see the power numbers that it takes to (almost certainly) win a Grand Tour time trial.

And that's surely the winning time...

Ganna brings it home in 42:40.47, an astonishing time on this challenging hilly and techincal course. There really isn't anyone yet to come who can better that time, so now all our attention turns to the general classification.

Ganna is making it look easy

The Italian rips seventeen seconds out of his teammate Dennis at the final intermediate timing check. He is producing some astonishing numbers here.

Dennis in the hot seat

His time of 43:06.39 is a full 44 seconds better than the previous best time.

If that's the gap between the two best specialists (so far) it makes you wonder about the sort of seismic ruptures we might see between the GC contenders.

Disaster for Equipe Paule Ka

Overnight the situation of women's team Equipe Paule Ka came to a final head, with the decision by its management to end the team. A 15-year franchise, the loss of such a mainstay of the women's peloton will be sorely felt.

The team on The Breakaway discussed this last night, with Bradley Wiggins in typically strident mood.

Wiggins on Paule Ka fall-out - 'The UCI need to step in, this should not be allowed to happen'

And we also have an exclusive interview with Lizzy Banks, standout performer for the team this year.

Lizzy Banks: 'Paule Ka threw us a lifeline; it’s been ripped away.'

It's absolutely baffling how a sponsor can agree to a multi-year relationship, only for them to totally abandon the project so soon into the process. It's reasonable to expect sponsors' businesses to be affected by the pandemic, but Paule Ka came in with their offer mid-season, making the almost-immediate reversal all the more puzzling.

A monstrous effort

Ganna beats Dennis' time to the first check atop the Muro by a solitary second. Talk about evenly matched. And in a league of their own, too.

And that didn't take very long...

Victor Campenaerts beats Gradek's mark almost immediately. Rohan Dennis is still on track to beat all the times that have been set so far today. Will Victor make it to the hotseat in time before he's turfed out of it again?

Hot favourite for the stage, Filippo Ganna is off the ramp!

Gradek sets new best time

Kamil Gradek leapfrogs Brandle into the hot seat. The new time to beat is 45:14.06.

Big time from Dennis

The Aussie former world champion goes almost a minute faster up the Muro climb at the beginning of the course than Brandle. If he can sustain this, he'll obliterate the best time of the day so far.

Dowsett set the second fastest time of the day when he crossed the line. Maciej Bodnar was looking pretty quick in the first half of the course, but he's now down 42 seconds on Brandle at the equivalent timing points.

Molano loses 13 minutes, but finishes...

Here's that strange crash again...

'Oh my word!' Molano crashes into barriers during time trial

For the gear nerds...

Bradley Wiggins analysis: The time trial set-ups of leading Giro contenders

As predicted, Brandle sets the best early time – 45:53.29

It's going to be really close between him and Dowsett though, the Brit was just .18 of a second slower at the last intermediate.

Bizarre crash for Molano

The Colombian rider on UAE Team Emirates seemed to clip a barrier on the inside of a gentle right-hand turn, and under that momentary change of equilibrium his bike just appeared to 'throw' him off and into the pavement.

It seems he will attempt to continue and finish, but he was sat down for at least a couple of minutes and seemed extremely ginger when he got back on the bike.

Giulio Ciccone of Trek-Segafredo has also DNSed with acute bronchitis.

Vini Zabu working well together

...which given this is supposed to be an individual time trial is not really allowed. Two of the Italian ProTeam's riders are riding the course together at the moment. Perhaps hoping that the TV cameras wouldn't notice them. But the TV cameras have noticed them and are now driving along behind them. That will probably be a fine, if not a docking of seconds and even a DQ.

Current pink jersey wearer Joao Almeida will be last off later today, he's wearing pink largely thanks to his superb opening day time trial performance – so he will be confident of knocking some more seconds out of his rivals today.

Wiggins - 'I think Almeida will take time out of his rivals in time trial'

Brandle looking good

Of the riders out so far, Matthias Brandle has set the best time up the Muro, going up slightly faster than Alex Dowsett.

It's a very long TT and so while that's a nice filip for the Austrian, it's by no means a guarantee of a good time overall.

So far, disappointingly, no bike changes.

34km to go – The first handful of riders are off the ramp

It's a 34-kilometre course with a really horrible steep wall near the start called the Muro di Ca' del Poggio.

The peculiar course design has given rise to suggestions of a double bike change, something I have never seen before in a Grand Tour TT.

Quite how tongue-in-cheek Dowsett's comments were remains to be seen. I for one am all in favour of as many bike changes as possible.

All clear in latest batch of Giro Covid-19 tests!

It's great to start the weekend with a bit of good news after a tumultuous week in the Giro.

Zero Covid-19 cases in latest Giro testing

And we have an absorbing time trial test to look forward today through the hills of Prosecco! Yes, that Prosecco, where the bubbly plonk comes from.

Here's how Ulissi made it two on Friday

Watch the reduced sprint finish between the Italian and his rival in pink...

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Wiggins: Is it not Vaughters' duty to pull out team if he's so concerned?

Bradley Wiggins has questioned why Jonathan Vaughters is not pulling his team out of the Giro d'Italia on the latest episode of The Bradley Wiggins Show.

Eurosport exclusively revealed that EF Pro Cycling wrote a letter to the UCI and race organisers asking for the Giro d’Italia to be stopped after the second week of racing.

The proposal from the team to halt the race on the second rest day of the race, because of "a clearly compromised bubble", had been refused by the UCI, Eurosport reported.

But Wiggins suggested on his latest podcast that if EF Pro Cycling manager Vaughters was so concerned about the situation he should have pulled his team out of the race rather than make the stand.

"It seems a strange one, given the stances of Jumbo-Visma and Mitchelton–Scott," Wiggins said on the podcast, in reference to the two major teams who have already pulled out of the race.

For someone who is so concerned about this bubble that has been burst and the health of the race and everything, is it not his duty to pull his own team out if he is that concerned?

How to watch the Giro d'Italia live – TV & live streaming

The 103rd edition of the Giro d'Italia is live on eurosport.co.uk and the Eurosport app.

You can watch the entire race for £6.99 (monthly subscription), while an annual pass is £39.99.

Each day Eurosport.co.uk and the Eurosport app will stream uninterrupted coverage of each stage. We will also have rolling coverage online on the Eurosport.co.uk website and our social channels.

And don't forget, we are bringing you daily podcasts from the Bradley Wiggins Show - check in with your podcast platform of choice each evening.

Listen to the latest podcast.

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