Filippo Ganna in Paris to dispel a taboo
Filippo Ganna è arrived in Paris
Filippo Ganna è arrived in Paris on Tuesday, with a clear first goal: the individual time trial scheduled for Saturday, July 27. That of the Five Circles time trial è a real tabù for Italy: since the individual time trials have rejoined the Olympic calendar (it was 1996), no Italian athlete è managed to win a medal, neither among men nor among women.
Ganna, the world champion of the specialty in 2020 and 2021, had his sights set on the time trial in Tokyo, held in the summer of 2021, a race in which he was the main favorite: the final result was forò a fifth place in the trial won by Primoz Roglic, a personal disappointment later overcome thanks to the brilliant results from the Verbania native on the track.
To find Italians medaled in an individual time trial, we have to go back in time to 1932, in Los Angeles, the last time before '96 in which the specialty trial was held: then it was even a double Italian victory, with Attilio Pavesi winning the gold medal and Guglielmo Segato the silver medal, in a trial that was decidedly different from today's time trials, with a course of a good 100 kilometers.
After the gold in the team pursuit at Tokyo 2020, then, Filippo Ganna wants to hit the big target on the road as well, in the specialty that has given him several satisfactions such as the chance to wear the pink jersey at the Giro d'Italia. He won't be the only Italian to participate in the individual time trial: among men there's also Alberto Bettiol (who, unlike Ganna, will also run the road race), while among women there will tryà Elisa Longo Borghini, recent winner of the Giro Women.
