where to see it on tv Ganna looks for the company – Corriere.it

As if having to stay focused for six hours wasn’t enough to avoid ending up upside down in a ditch or impaled by a handlebar, constantly trying to scrape mud and dust off your glasses and understand what your boss is screaming in your earpiece, today some of the 175 participants in the 120th Paris-Roubaix (among them the outgoing champion Van Baarle) will also have to check the tire pressure on the on-board computer and raise it (on asphalt) or lower it (on cobblestones) when appropriate. Pedal scientists say the game is worth 50 watts, which multiplied by 256 kilometers is a lot.

Filippo Ganna cares little or nothing about the technology in progress. «I tried the race rhythms on the cobblestones during reconnaissance and then at home, in Italy, simulating those two to five minutes at full speed in which you suffer like a beast. Today I have no intention of checking the computer or the tyres, I just have to go all out and get to the velodrome with the leaders. We’ll see”.

Accustomed to the perfect curves of velodromes and the smooth asphalt of time trials, Ganna also has the physique
(193cm for 84-85 kilos), the power and the mind of the Roubaix rider: he won the race in 2016 as an amateur (the only Italian in history) even if today’s race (29 cobbled stretches for 54 kilometres) is «a monstrously different thing». Compared to the three previous experiences as a pro (best result 35th place in 2022), today he is captain of an expert Ineos and at his total disposal: he’s in great shape, the second place in the Sanremo made him understand his qualitative figure in the classics. A more enigmatic track than usual awaits him (dry and dusty pavé in some sections, muddy in others) and a handful of very ferocious opponents: above all the eternal rivals Van Der Poel and Van Aert who have never won the race of their dreams; immediately behind them the former world champion Pedersen, Van Baarle himself (but encores here are very difficult), Asgreen, Mohoric and other aspiring sorcerers.

“I know that winning this race can change my life and make me enter cycling history,” he says Ganna, who also won an Olympic gold medal and eight world titles between road and track – but I also know how easy it is to end up in a ditch or on a broom wagon, destroyed and with the conviction that you will never race it again».

Where to see today’s race

Roubaix can be seen from 10.30 on Eurosport, from 12.50 on Raisport, from 16 on Raidue.

Women’s Roubaix

How unpredictable Roubaix can be was demonstrated by yesterday’s women’s event, scheduled for the third time in history. The 34-year-old Canadian Allison Jackson finished on the top step of the podium, beating the Vicenza-born Katia Ragusa and the Belgian Truyen in the sprint: three very good supporting actors that no one had predicted on the eve of the top ten. The trio had the courage to slip into a 15-man break that started immediately after the start and which came close to a six-minute lead. When fate seemed sealed, 37 kilometers from the finish line and on a paved stretch, our Elisa Longo Borghini slipped into the lead of the platoon realizing an incredible strike from the eleven (all very favourites) colleagues in her group. Time to get up, straighten a handlebar, tape up a wound and the fugitives regained their courage, managing to fall into the velodrome with a 12 small second advantage over the Belgian super favorite Kopecky, only seventh.