Filippo Ganna took Italy’s first medal within the 2024 Paris Olympics however was not proud of silver. He was driving for gold however was 15 seconds slower than Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel, who produced yet one more world-class trip to win the time trial.
Belgium’s Wout Van Aert gained bronze, ten seconds slower than Ganna, with Josh Tarling of Nice Britain fourth after a entrance puncture and bike change, with the USA’s Brandon McNulty fifth.
Ganna typically checked out his medal on the rostrum after which within the blended zone however was not proud of silver.
“It’s not the medal I needed however I used to be crushed by a ‘fuoriclasse’, an actual champion,” Ganna mentioned.
“I gave it all the pieces however I’m not nice within the rain. I chased my goals, to go for it and I did the perfect I might. I can solely thank everybody within the Italian staff who helped me. We’ve all labored onerous for this for the reason that begin of the season, particularly my coach Dario Coini, even when right now he was within the Nice Britain staff automotive following Josh Tarling. I needed extra however we’ll nonetheless have a good time this medal.”
Ganna rode a damaging cut up time trial, saving one thing for the ultimate third of the 32.4km course. He misplaced seven seconds to Evenepoel within the opening 13km, then an additional ten seconds within the center 9 kilometres. Nevertheless, he lined the ultimate 10.4km at a mean of 55.105 km/h, pulling again 15 seconds on Van Aert and even two seconds on Evenepoel, even after virtually crashing into the limitations at one level.
“I risked so much in that second, maybe somebody was trying over me and needed me to keep away from what might have been a nasty crash,” Ganna mentioned.
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“I additionally needed to take off my visor as a result of it was stuffed with water and steaming up. I both threw it away or risked crashes. I didn’t need that, even when it price me one thing.
“Sadly we did our recon rides within the dry and underneath the solar. In different races have been capable of do a remaining recon trip within the morning on the race that wasn’t allowed right here on the Olympics. Maybe that was one thing to alter for the long run but it surely was the identical for everybody.”
The Italian nationwide time trial coach Marco Velo was satisfied that Ganna will ultimately respect his silver medal and highlighted how he struggles to relaunch at velocity after a nook within the rain, whereas Evenepoel’s centre of gravity provides him a slight benefit.
Ganna’s Olympic journey is just half finished with the time trial. Whereas Evenepoel, Van Aert and others will keep in Paris after which trip subsequent Sunday’s highway race, Ganna has a flight to Italy on Monday morning for a remaining block of staff pursuit coaching. He’ll return to Paris in every week for monitor racing.
His staff pursuit teammates cheered Ganna on by way of massive display within the Montichiari velodrome close to Brescia in northern Italy.
“I journey to Italy on Monday, will take pleasure in a time off the bike after which get again into monitor coaching on Tuesday. I hope this silver medal will give me the motivation to go for gold within the monitor.”
