UAE Tour stage 3: Stefan Bissegger upsets Filippo Ganna for time trial victory

Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost) blasted to time trial victory on stage 3 of the 2022 UAE Tour.

Bissegger upset TT world champion Filippo Ganna with a blazing 55.58kph ride that left the Italian in second place.

The 23-year-old Swiss can add his victory to a blossoming palmarès that includes time trial triumphs at Paris-Nice and the Benelux Tour. He now takes the red leader’s jersey into stage 4 on Wednesday.

“I had a really good time trial today. I was pretty confident that I had good power and could do a good time. You never know in time trials how good your opponents are until the end though,” Bissegger said after the stage wrapped up.

Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) took third to complete a who’s-who of time trialists on the day’s podium.

Defending UAE Tour champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Emirates) obviously hasn’t been slowed down by his brush with COVID over winter. The double Tour de France champ finished fourth in the 9km test, second of the GC contenders and just 4 seconds behind Dumoulin.

João Almeida (UAE Emirates) was next fastest of the GC riders, 4 seconds back on his teammate Pogačar. Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana Qazaqstan) and Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) were next best of the classification pack, 3 and 7 seconds back on Almeida respectively.

American talent Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) cranked out an impressive time of 10.11 to leave him 11th on the stage.

Beautiful scenes here in Ajman today 🤩💪@ajmantourism #uaetour pic.twitter.com/xMNzb0tr0u

— UAE Tour Official (@uae_tour) February 22, 2022

The 9km out-and-back on the edge of Ajman was as straightforward as you can get, with huge highway lanes and just one U-Turn for complication. Blustering winds and smooth tarmac made aerodynamics as much a factor as pure horsepower on the near-straight course.

Bissegger was early out of the gate and promptly took his spot in the hotseat with his mark of 9.43. He wasn’t expected to stay there so long however.

The big Swiss was able to make himself comfy for some time before TT aces Ganna and Dumoulin rolled down the ramp. All-eyes were on Ganna to top the board, but the Italian was one second down at the intermediate check and only shed more time from there.

Will @GannaFilippo pick up his 17th ITT win today? Only time will tell…@G42ai @AbuDhabiSC @Tissot #UAETour pic.twitter.com/hAoDSZfz5J

— UAE Tour Official (@uae_tour) February 22, 2022

Dumoulin was the last of the pure time trialists. The Dutchman was third-fastest at the time split and didn’t fade on the home stretch to score his podium spot.

The 20km Jebel Jais summit finish looms on the horizon Wednesday – expect the GC to look altogether different in 24 hours.

For now, Dumoulin is leader in the clubhouse.

“I’m happy to race here as I had a rough winter recovering from a broken bone,” Bissegger said. “For the moment I’m the leader in the GC, we’ll see about tomorrow.”