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Italy’s Filippo Ganna won a shortened individual time trial on stage 18 of the Vuelta a Espana as Britain’s Tom Pidcock retained his third place in the overall standings.<\/b><\/p>\n
UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s Joao Almeida, who is second in the general classification, took 10 seconds off the advantage of overall race leader Jonas Vingegaard.<\/p>\n
The stage was reduced from 27.2km to 12.2km to ensure “greater protection” for riders because of security concerns resulting from a series of pro-Palestinian protests during the three-week race.<\/p>\n
Police numbers were also ramped up, with hundreds of protestors waving flags along the route and whistling riders from Israel-Premier Tech.<\/p>\n
And French news agency AFP reported that two protestors were detained for trying to jump over barriers. <\/p>\n
Two-time world time trial champion Ganna, 29, lived up to his billing as the favourite, with the Ineos Grenadiers rider edging out Australian Jay Vine by a second in Valladolid.<\/p>\n
“Obviously, with the news of the change in the parcours [route] last night it was a bit strange, but I tried to do the best today,” said Ganna, who was 10 seconds quicker than anyone else over the final four kilometres. <\/p>\n
“The first part I didn’t find the correct rhythm and in the final I tried to push over without thinking of the numbers. I am really happy for today.”<\/p>\n
While Ganna’s fast finish ensured he pipped Vine, all eyes were focused on the battle at the top of the general classification.<\/p>\n
Almeida finished strongly to put time into Visma-Lease A Bike’s Vingegaard and the Portuguese rider now sits 40 seconds behind the Dane with two competitive stages of racing remaining.<\/p>\n
Q36.5 Pro Cycling’s Pidcock finished 29 seconds behind Ganna but managed to extend his advantage over Australian Jai Hindley in the battle for the final podium spot by three seconds.<\/p>\n
With a relatively flat 161.9km run from Rueda to Guijuelo scheduled for Friday, it raises the prospect of a huge day in the mountains on Saturday’s penultimate stage with a summit finish on the Bola del Mundo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n