Time lord Ganna makes it two

While van Aert rues a Worlds double of his own

- James Shrubsall, Jonny Long

Italian powerhouse Filippo Ganna swept to his second World Championship time trial victory in a row to make him the undisputed king against the clock in 2021.

This year he has won 50% of the road time trials he has ridden including cleaning up at the Giro d’Italia, winning both TT stages. He also powered the Italians to team pursuit gold at the Tokyo Olympics. Gold in Bruges on Sunday was the rainbow-coloured icing on the cake.

Ganna beat home favourite Wout van Aert into second place by just six seconds over the flat 43.3km course, with WVA’s compatriot Remco Evenepoel a further 38 seconds back. The British charge was led by Ethan Hayter, who finished eighth at 1.27. GB’s second rider Dan Bigham was 16th at 2.11.

Fifty-five riders left the coastal town of Knokke-Heist for Bruges, with the two heavyweights Ganna and van Aert providing an enthralling battle all the way.

With Evenepoel already having set blistering times ahead of them, Ganna whistled through the first checkpoint at 13km just seven seconds down on van Aert. Come the second checkpoint the Italian had closed to just one second, and the writing was on the wall. Ten kilometres later he had put a further seven seconds into WVA and that writing had spelled out Ganna’s name in gold.