Imola 2020 World Cup, Filippo Ganna wins the elite men's individual time trial on Friday, giving Italy its first gold medal at this year's World Cup.
Filippo Ganna secured his first career time-trial world title last Friday (25 September 2020), confirming his status as a pre-race favorite on a windy day at the UCI Road World Championships in Imola.
Ganna completed the 31.7km course in a time of 35'54". Wout van Aert took second place with a delay of 26", while Stefan Küng completed the podium, 29" behind Ganna. Geraint Thomas finished fourth ahead of the two-time winner Rohan Dennis, fifth.
Ganna's statement:
"It's a dream for me and I'm really happy. I personally thank the whole Italian team and also Ineos Grenadiers. I don't have the words. I have won four rainbow jerseys on the track. This is my first time in the time trial. I will celebrate with my family".
Summary of the men's Elite Time Trial race at the Imola 2020 World Championships
The flat round course saw a fast race in windy conditions. Max Walscheid and then Edoardo Affini were among the first riders to spend at least some time in the leader's chair before Thomas crossed the line almost a minute faster than the first, taking the provisional lead. The 2018 Tour de France champion's time withstood the attacks of many talented riders before Van Aert finished 11" faster after a fantastic second half of his run. However, the Belgian did not keep his lead, as Ganna accelerated being faster even in the intermediate. Küng crossed the line just three seconds further than Van Aert, and then Tom Dumoulin came a little more detached at the halfway point - for lingering over a loss of balance in a corner - but Ganna crossed the line 27" faster than Van Aert taking the provisional lead of the race.
After Ganna, only Dennis remained on track. Although the defending champion was the second-fastest rider in the intermediate, he failed to catch up in the second half of his race and reached the finish line 40 seconds late. Ganna's victory marks the first ever Italian title in the men's elite time trial and a first gold medal for Italy in a men's elite event since Alessandro Ballan won in 2008.
Top 10
1 GANNA Filippo (Italia) 35:54
2 VAN AERT Wout (Belgio) 0:26
3 KÜNG Stefan (Svizzera) 0:29
4 THOMAS Geraint (Gran Bretagna) 0:37
5 DENNIS Rohan (Australia) 0:39
6 ASGREEN Kasper (Danimarca) 0:47
7 CAVAGNA Rémi (Francia) 0:48
8 CAMPENAERTS Victor (Belgio) 0:52
9 DOWSETT Alex (Gran Bretagna) 1:06
10 DUMOULIN Tom (Paesi Bassi) 1:14
Sports Biography of Filippo Ganna
But who is the athlete Filippo Ganna? On Eureka.Bike we want to reconstruct for you the career of this young and winning rider to date.
Filippo Ganna was born in Verbania on July 25, 1996 and is an Italian road racer and cyclist who races for the Ineos Grenadiers team. On the track he became world champion in individual pursuit in 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Road professional since 2017, in 2019 he was national time trial champion and world specialty bronze medal. In 2020, he just became world road time trial champion in Imola.
The beginnings
2011-2012
Filippo competes in the Allievi category with the Ossolano Pedal from 2011 to 2012, achieving 20 victories.
2013-2014
In 2013 he made his debut among the Juniors with the Castanese Verbania, of Alberto Donini and Terenzio Baronchelli, collecting 6 successes, five of which time trial; the following year he won seven road races, including the national title against time and the Chrono des Nations category, and the title of national junior champion in individual pursuit.
2015
In 2015 he made his debut among the Under 23s with the Viris Maserati-Sisal Matchpoint of Vigevano: in the season he won three races, including the Chrono Champenois in Bethény [1]. In the second part of the season he competes as an intern for Lampre-Merida, a World Tour formation directed by Giuseppe Saronni, also participating in the Under 23 time trial of the world championships in Richmond.
2016
n 2016, competing with Team Colpack, he won the Grand Prix Laguna Poreč, a competition valid for the UCI Europe Tour.
Called up for the track world championships in London, he sets the new Italian record in the individual pursuit (4'16 "127) and then manages to win the world title in the specialty by beating the German Domenic Weinstein in the final with a time of 4 '16 "141. In the same world championship he finishes fourth in the team chase with the quartet of the National team. He later conquered the Paris-Roubaix Espoirs, the first Italian to do so in the history of the race. In July he wins the European Under-23 individual pursuit title with a time of 4'14 "165, further improving the Italian record, and wins the silver medal in the Under-23 team pursuit, establishing another national record. August participates for the first time in the Olympic Games, in Rio de Janeiro, obtaining the sixth final place in the team pursuit with the blue quartet completed by Simone Consonni, Francesco Lamon and Michele Scartezzini. In September at the European Under-23 road championships he is therefore second in the time trial, 30 "behind the German Lennard Kämna, over a distance of 25.4km; in the road test, with arrival on the tear of Plumelec, he is ranked sixth in the sprint won by Aljaksandr Rabušėnka.
Pro carrier
2017
Ganna became a pro in 2017 with UAE Team Emirates, Emirati World Tour formation (formerly Lampre-Merida). In March he made his debut in the classics of the North, at Ghent-Wevelgem, but was forced to retire due to a fall. Having recovered for the track world championships in Hong Kong, in mid-April, in the world championship he first won the bronze with the team pursuit quartet (completed by Simone Consonni, Francesco Lamon and Liam Bertazzo) and then the silver medal in the individual pursuit, beaten in the final by the Australian Jordan Kerby. Returning to road racing in May, he finished fifth in the time trial of the Tour of California and then ninth in the Elite time trial of the European Championships in Herning. At the end of the road season, he returns to the track and in the first days of November he obtains an important confirmation, winning the team pursuit test of the World Cup stage in Pruszków with his team mates.
2018
Back on the road, in January 2018 he is in excellent shape at the Vuelta a San Juan in Argentina. After finishing fourth on the final stretch that characterizes the second stage, he ranks second in the third stage, an individual time trial of 14.4 km. Thanks to these placings, for the first time in his career, he wears the leader's jersey of a stage race. He loses the leader's jersey at the end of the fifth stage, an uphill finish, in favor of Gonzalo Najar, relegating to third place in the general: thus concluding the race in third place in the classification, his first podium in a professional stage race, winning also the ranking of best youngster.
A few weeks later, at the track world championships in Apeldoorn, he won bronze in the team pursuit, also setting the new Italian record. In the individual pursuit he therefore wins his second world title by beating the Portuguese Ivo Oliveira and setting the new Italian record (4'13 "622 in the semifinal, 4'13" 607 in the final).
Subsequently he made his debut in the Tour of Flanders, retiring after having been on the run for a long time, and in the Paris-Roubaix which finished out of time. At the Italian Time Trial Championship he comes second, behind Gianni Moscon.
2019
For the 2019 season he joins Team Sky. He gets his first success as a professional, making his debut with the new team, imposing himself in the first stage of the Tour de la Provence, an individual time trial of 8.9 km. In March he won his third world title in the individual pursuit, beating in the final, as in 2016, the German Domenic Weinstein.
In June he participates in the national time trial championships, on the Bedonia track: he becomes national champion of the specialty, preceding Alberto Bettiol by 52 hundredths of a second. On 25 September 2019 he won the bronze medal in the individual time trial at the road world championship in Yorkshire.
2020
In February 2020 in Berlin he graduated as world champion in individual pursuit for the fourth time, setting the world record of 4'01 "934 in the qualifiers (the previous record, 4'02" 647, set in the World Cup in November 2019, already belonged to him); in the same world championship he is also a bronze medal in the team pursuit.
In September 2020, in Imola, he became world champion in time trial on the road covering the 31.7km of the route at almost 53km/h on an hourly average, beating the Belgian Wout Van Aert and the Swiss Stefan Küng, respectively in second and third on the podium.