Italian wins 12.2km time trial with time of 13 minutes
Almeida closes gap on overall leader Vingegaard
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.
