Filippo Ganna will start in the final wave of riders of Monday’s Tirreno-Adriatico time trial, with Ineos Grenadiers hoping the rain will have eased when the Italian rolls down the start ramp at 3:40 pm local time in Italy.
Rain and 20km crosswinds are forecast for much of Monday on the Tuscan coast, north of Pisa, with the 11.5km time trial going up and down the pan-flat seafront between Lido di Camaiore and Marina di Pietrasanta.
“I’ve been messaging with my coach about the weather. He thinks it should be the same for everyone and so it’s a lottery for everyone,” Ganna said with his usual pragmatism on Sunday, perhaps aware he has few time trial rivals in this year’s Tirreno-Adriatico.
“There’s only really one corner, the rest of the course is fast, even if it does rain. We’ll see but I don’t think it’ll be easy, whatever the weather. I don’t know how my rivals are going or if they’ll be competitive. We’ll see on Monday afternoon.”
It is difficult to see who can beat Ganna on the pan flat out and back 11.5km course along the Tuscan seafront.
He won a similar stage in 2022, beating Remco Evenepoel and Pogacar by 11 and 18 seconds respectively. However, in 2021 Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) beat Stefan Kung (Groupama-FDJ) and Ganna to win the 10km final time trial stage. The Belgian has beaten Ganna on other occasions too but the Italian beat him to win the world title in both 2020 and 2021.
Van Aert was quick to play down his chances after his recent illness and loss of training time while at altitude, and with both Evenepoel and Pogacar absent. Van Aert has opted to start his timer trial early and is off at 12:56 pm local time. Wilco Kelderman gets Jumbo-Visma’s last time trial slot at 3:25pm.
It is difficult to see who can produce more power and more speed than Ganna on Monday. It is his race to lose.
Primoz Roglic (Jubo-Visma) is riding but is making his season debut after his complex shoulder surgery and gradual rehabilitation during the winter. Most other time trialists have been sent to Paris-Nice for the vital team time trial stage.
Names to remember include early starter Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo), Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) and Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates).
Ganna will ride in Italy for the time this year at Tirreno-Adriatico and is glad to be on home turf, even if it comes with bigger expectations from the tifosi and himself.
“I’m still young but I’m starting to feel old. It’s my seventh Tirreno-Adriatico, I’ve always ridden as a professional because it’s always nice to race in Italy and feel the support of the Italian tifosi. I hope I don’t disappoint them,” Ganna explained.
“I focused on the Tour de France and other things in 2022 but I’m happy to be back at the Giro d’Italia this year and I’m happy with my calendar.
“I’ve already ridden the Vuelta a San Juan and the Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta. Now I’ve got Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo and then Belgium for the Classics. The Giro will come quickly after that, making for a busy first half of the year. I’ve already told the team I’ll be on holiday in June, with my phone off.”
Ganna also rode the European Track Championships in February, helping Italy win the gold medal in the team pursuit. He intends to mix track and road racing until next summer’s Paris 3024 Olympics. However, he is focusing more and more on road racing and even stage racing rather than just time trialling.
If he wins the opening Tirreno-Adriatico time trial, he will pull on the blue leader’s jersey and could keep it all the way to the stage 5 mountain finish at Sassotetto.
Ganna can climb despite revealing he weighs 88 kg. He can produce huge power for his weight, helping him to fight the effects of gravity. He will try to survive on the 13 km climb to the Sassotetto finish but knows that his overall rivals include far better climbers like Adam Yates, Brandon McNulty and João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), Enric Mas (Movistar), Wilco Kelderman (Jumbo-Visma), Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost), Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious), Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën) and Alexandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe).
“I want to do well, otherwise I wouldn’t have come,” Ganna said.
“I always want to do well in the time trials but I also want to show I’m a road rider too. So if I have to do extra work in training on my road bike, then I do it.
“I’m not setting myself any limits for Tirreno, I’ve got the freedom to ride my own race but you never know how the race will unfold in the early season, especially in the cold and rain, which is expected.
“It’s a hard race again this year, with three stages over 200km and three stages with more than 3000 metres of climbing. I’ll suffer but that’s part of racing.”