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The Italian Tricolore passes the Maglia Ciclamino, as Ganna flies past Paul Magnier.
Predictably, Ganna is picking up minute men. He’s just passed Cyril Barthe, and the pace difference between them is stark.
Another team looking to win yet more stages is UAE, and their best bet for the day, specialist Mikkel Bjerg, has just taken of.
Alberto Bettiol has started his ride. While this is unlikely to be a stage for him and his Astana team, the Italian told Cyclingnews that they will be doing ‘crazy things’ in the coming weeks as they seek to add to their tally of two stages.
‘We can do crazy things now’ – Alberto Bettiol and XDS Astana earn freedom to experiment after non-stop success in first week of Giro d’Italia
Bax is still going very well – he’s still fastest at the second check, this time by 12 seconds.
Here we go – time for Filippo Ganna! He’s just stormed off the ramp, resplendent in the tricolore jersey as national champion.
This would be a turn up for the books in Bax can keep up this pace. He’s a good time trialist, but not historically at the level of Price-Pejtersen and Walscheid.
Hold that thought – Sjoerd Bax has just gone through the first check 12 seconds quicker than Price-Pejtersen and 19 seconds up on Walscheid.
So Max Walscheid has set the early benchmark, and with no rider other than Price-Pejtersen coming anywhere near him at any of the intermediate checks, he’ll likely be leader in the clubhouse for a while yet.
He hasn’t – Price-Pejtersen finished 12 seconds down on Walscheid. He slowed down in relation to his German rival over the course of the effort.
Will Price-Pejtersen beat it? We’ll know very soon.
Walscheid sprints to finish, to the cheers of the roadside fans who have waited a while to catch a first glimpse of a cyclist, to set a time of 48:10.
Walscheid is approaching the finish.
Milan is through the first time check, and while he isn’t taking it easy, it seems this time trial will be too long for him to gain anything in the points classification. He’s third fastest so far, but a whole 1:28 down on Price-Pejtersen.
So far, these are the only two riders in it – Ryan Mullen was the closest to them at the first time check, at a distant 1:32.
Price-Pejtersen is again quicker…but this time only just! His advantage has been slashed from 7 seconds at the first time check to just the one second.
Walscheid is through the second time check, with a time of 33:17.
While we wait for the first riders to start finishing the course and posting times, have a read of Philippa York’s analysis of the first week.
Jonathan Milan is off! He was fifth in the Tirreno time trial, but he’s never performed so well in the longer efforts like today. You imagine this is one for him to take easy, and recharge the battery for a renewed hunt for Maglia Ciclamino points this week.
That’s already been beaten by Price-Pejtersen, who’s gone seven seconds quicker.
Walscheid has been picking up minute men, so much so that he has passed all three of the riders who started before to set the first time at the intermediate sprint, of 20:09.
One of the important times to remember: 14:20 CET. That’s when stage favourite Filippo Ganna will set off. Here’s a full list of the start times.
Seeing as that time trial took place in the same location, and some of the same participants, it could be a prophetic indication of what might happen today. Remind yourself here of everything that happened that day.
Max Walscheid is another rider to look out for, and has set off fast, already catching his minute man Arjen Livyns. Very encouragingly for him, he was third at a time trial on the same roads at Lido di Camaiore at this year’s Tirreno-Adriatico – albeit a much shorter one, at 11.5km.
Price-Pejtersen was third in another similarly flat stage in Tuscany at the Tirreno-Adriatico a couple of years ago.
Johan Price-Pejtersen becomes the 6th rider to begin, and he’s one to watch out for. The Alpecin rider is a time trial specialist, especially on a flat course like this, and so will hope to set a strong early benchmark.
The riders are setting off at one minute intervals.
Van den Broek finds himself at the bottom of GC after dislocating his shoulder during stage two. It’s been a battle of survival since then, but he has persevered and survived this deep into the race.
Of course, as with most Giro time trial stages in recent years, there’s one man in particular to look out for for the stage win – Filippo Ganna. The home favourite has been itching for this stage all week, and its flat parcours is virtually perfect for him. He’ll be hopeful of adding to his career collection of 7 Giro stage wins.
Frank van den Broek will be the first rider to set off, at 13:15 local time.
Have a read of our full preview of the stage, before it starts in just under a quarter of an hour.
This will be Afonso Eulálio’s fifth stage wearing the pink jersey – and potentially his last? His small frame is not that of a time trialist, and Vingegaard won’t hold back in trying to gain as much time as possible today.
But the Portuguese rider defied expectations on last Sunday’s summit finish to finish an exceptional fifth on the stage, and so shouldn’t be underestimated.
Having not put a foot wrong all race, this could be the day that Jonas Vingegaard takes the Maglia Rosa for the first time. His deficit to Afonso Eulálio of 2:24 might seem like a lot, but this is the kind of long, flat route that an elite time trialist like him can make huge gains.
The Giro organisers have been pretty stingy when it comes to time trials this year, with no tests of the clock beyond today’s stage, but this one alone is enough to make a very big impact on the race.
After recharging their batteries yesterday, the Giro peloton is back racing today for what for many will be one of the most important stages of the race – the time trial.
Hello and welcome to stage 10 of the Giro d’Italia!