Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) powered to victory on stage one of the Tirreno-Adriatico, as his time of 12.17 min. crushed all competition on the 11.5km time trial, which took place on the Tuscan resort of Lido di Camaiore near Pisa.
For a long time it looked like Alpecin-Deceuninck's Johan Price-Pejtersen might claim an unlikely win as the former Under-23 time trial world champion, who started 19th, set an impressive time of 12.45 on the flat course.
The Dane's stronghold on the lead was not broken until Juan Ayuso (UAE-Team Emirates) clocked in at 12.40 min.
Ganna, who went into the time trail as clear favorite, started as third last and was two seconds off the pace of the leading rider at the first time check.
However, the Italian gradually upped the pace and kept producing negative splits to win by a clear margin as he crossed the goal line in 12. 17 min.