Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) has confirmed he will target Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, the yellow jersey at the Tour de France and possibly the Hour Record in 2022, naming Francesco Moser as a rouleur role model and inspiration for his numerous goals.
Moser achieved all of those objectives during his long career spanning from 1973 to 1988. He won Paris-Roubaix three consecutive times and also added the Giro d’Italia in 1984 after he revived his career in his thirties by beating Eddy Merckx’s Hour Record on a disc wheel-equipped aero bike and with the help of new physiological methodology introduced by Professor Francesco Conconi and Dr. Michele Ferrari.
Ganna has played down the chances of him one day targeting the overall classification at the Giro d’Italia but is inspired by Moser’s achievements.
“I’d never really thought about how my career can be like his but it’d be a pleasure for me to follow a similar career path, even I can never equal it,” Ganna told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“Moser made history and nobody will ever get near him. But having him as an example and going close to what he achieved would be huge in modern sport. When I visited his country house, saw all his trophies and listened to him talk about his career, I was amazed. He’s always said nice things about me and that counts for something too.”
Ganna made his season debut at the Etoile des Bessèges, winning Sunday’s final time trial.
He is likely to return to France this week for the Tour de la Provence and then ride the UAE Tour, in the hope of again winning the time trial stage. He is expected to ride Paris-Nice to get a taste of French roads for the Tour de France and then target Milan-San Remo, perhaps with a power attack on the Poggio, and then Paris-Roubaix, which he won as an under-23 rider in 2016.
Ganna has won seven stages at the Giro d’Italia in the last two years but will miss his home Grand Tour for a shot at winning the first yellow jersey of the Tour de France in Copenhagen.
If Ganna emerges on form after helping Ineos Grenadiers at the Tour de France, he will prepare for a sea-level attempt at the Hour Record, possibly in Manchester if the air pressure is suitable in the late summer. Ganna has always said he will target the Hour Record at sea level, despite Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal) setting the current record of 55.089km at altitude in Mexico.
“There’s no news on that at the moment, I’m focused on the spring first of all,” Ganna said, referring to line up his objectives and focus on them one by one.
“If I go for it, it’ll definitely be after the Tour, so in the summer. We haven’t chosen the velodrome yet but we’ve got to have low pressure so the conditions are as favourable as possible at sea level.”
Ganna ended his 2021 season in October but is keen to race again, hence his desire to add the Tour de la Provence to his programme and so help fellow track rider and fellow Italian Elia Viviani in the sprints.
“I’m hungry to race, it’s what everything we do is about,” he suggested.
“It was good to win the time trial. We needed it after all the bad luck of Carapaz’s crash in the race and of course Egen Bernal’s crash.
“I actually went better on the final climb of the time trial rather than the flat section. That’s good because I know I'll face a lot of climbing this year as well as time trialling and everything else.”
