Filippo Ganna has revealed he has a new, ‘more extreme’ time trial position in the works, but don’t expect to spot it in the World Championships tomorrow.
Ganna used to be the dominant force in time trialling, with two world titles and an Hour Record to his name, but he has been usurped in recent years by Remco Evenepoel, winner of the past three world titles and whom Ganna hasn’t beaten against the clock since 2023.
This year, the Italian has gone back to the drawing board to re-think his position on the TT bike.
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“I lowered myself on the handlebars, but kept the saddle height the same,” he revealed in an interview with Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport ahead of the Worlds time trial on Sunday.
“I’m starting to feel quite comfortable even with this slightly more ‘extreme’ posture, so to speak. However, for a 45-minute effort, I’ll probably stick with the more classic one.”
As indicated, the position is hardly a comfortable one for Ganna, and it in fact caused him significant problems as he tried to adopt it earlier in the year.
“Not many people know this, but the week before the Giro d’Italia, I almost feared not starting,” Ganna revealed.
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The problem was that the increased drop between the saddle and the forearm rests led to a narrower hip angle, which led to the sensation of his leg “falling asleep” and then a knock-on injury.
“The muscles in the area had become inflamed, risking pubalgia,” Ganna said. “I then focused heavily on exercises to stretch my back and gradually lower myself better.”
Ganna won the time trial in the Giro, and then the Italian national championship TT on his old position, and the last individual time trial he raced was at the Tour de France where the hilly parcours left him at a disadvantage.
He has since been trying to hone that new position, but feels Sunday’s Worlds TT comes too soon.
“In the last training camp, in Livigno, I continued along this path. And if this World Championship time trial had been shorter, we would have used it.”
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