Filippo Ganna took Italy’s first medal within the 2024 Paris Olympics however was not proud of silver. He was using for gold however was 15 seconds slower than Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel, who produced one more world-class trip to win the time trial.
Belgium’s Wout Van Aert received bronze, ten seconds slower than Ganna, with Josh Tarling of Great Britain fourth after a entrance puncture and bike change, with the USA’s Brandon McNulty fifth.
Ganna usually 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 overwhelmed by a ‘fuoriclasse’, an actual champion,” Ganna mentioned.
“I gave it every thing however I’m not nice within the rain. I chased my desires, to go for it and I did the most effective I might. I can solely thank everybody within the Italian crew who helped me. We’ve all labored laborious for this for the reason that begin of the season, particularly my coach Dario Coini, even when right now he was within the Great Britain crew automobile following Josh Tarling. I needed extra however we’ll nonetheless rejoice this medal.”
Ganna rode a unfavorable break 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 extra ten seconds within the center 9 kilometres. However, he lined the ultimate 10.4km at a median of 55.105 km/h, pulling again 15 seconds on Van Aert and even two seconds on Evenepoel, even after nearly crashing into the boundaries at one level.
“I risked loads in that second, maybe somebody was wanting 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.
“Unfortunately we did our recon rides within the dry and underneath the solar. In different races had been capable of do a ultimate recon trip within the morning on the race that wasn’t allowed right here on the Olympics. Perhaps that was one thing to alter for the longer term nevertheless it 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 pace after a nook within the rain, whereas Evenepoel’s centre of gravity offers him a slight benefit.
Ganna’s Olympic journey is barely half achieved with the time trial. While Evenepoel, Van Aert and others will keep in Paris after which trip subsequent Sunday’s street race, Ganna has a flight to Italy on Monday morning for a ultimate block of crew pursuit coaching. He will return to Paris in every week for observe racing.
His crew pursuit teammates cheered Ganna on through huge display screen within the Montichiari velodrome close to Brescia in northern Italy.
“I journey to Italy on Monday, will take pleasure in a time without work the bike after which get again into observe coaching on Tuesday. I hope this silver medal will give me the motivation to go for gold within the observe.”