so he changes methods and training to try to win the Classiche- Corriere.it

He led the track pursuit quartet to the Olympic title and the world record (2021), was the first (2022) to break the 4′ wall in the individual event, smashed the Hour record (2022) and won three world titles on the road and six on the track in six seasons. Enough?

It is not enough. Italian cycling, in a black crisis of results and protagonists, but also its coaches, ask Super Ganna to try to win a classic or – listen, listen – a stage race, maybe short like the Tirreno-Adriatico. A path to Wiggins but without the psychological drift that befell the English baronet, who conquered the Tour by raping his body. This year (I had a good winter of training, with some moments of mental difficulty) Filippo Ganna has already finished second in the Vuelta a San Juan in Argentina (behind the climber Lopez) and in the Tour of the Algarve in Portugal: there is no had never succeeded before.

On Monday he wore the blue leader’s jersey of Tirreno with a monstrous time trial, on Tuesday and Wednesday (in Foligno, where Philipsen won in the sprint, piloted by an extraordinary Van Der Poel) he defended it authoritatively. When the group broke up in the wind under the action of Van Aert, Goofy behaved like a true leader. But the real test will take place on Thursday 9 March, between 2.20 and 2.35 pm, when the group will face the Wall of Tortoreto, in the Teramo area, for the first time (four steps are planned). Ganna will have to grit his teeth in the first vertical section of 900 meters, catch his breath and then put up with another 3 km steep up to 12%. Specialized phenomena such as Alaphilippe, Van Aert and Van Der Poel or superfine climbers such as Roglic will snap in his face to snatch his jersey. In terms of time and power – explains the Ineos captain -, the effort is the same as a short time trial, the problem is that here the road climbs and I weigh 15/20 kilos more than the others.

The test on Thursday and the one on Friday on the walls of Osimo (in the middle there is the real and long climb of Sassotetto) will be fundamental to understand if Ganna can aim for the Milan-Sanremo, the classic-monument which together with Roubaix seems to its reach. The problem is not only resisting the attacks of Pogacar on duty, who scrambled everyone in Paris-Nice: Ganna has no chance in the sprint and therefore has to arrive alone on viale Roma, perhaps starting from the last kilometer like Nibali and Cancellara did, last great of the time trial to triumph on the Riviera. It will be after the Tirreno tests that Ineos will decide how to build a team around its champion. Uphill I have to forget the on-board computer, the times and powers of a pistard: I just have to not die at the wheel of the person in front of me.