Filippo Ganna will return to the Giro d’Italia in 2023 after missing the race this season in favour of the Tour de France. The Italian has already confirmed that he will start his campaign at the Vuelta a San Juan in January, while Paris-Roubaix will be the centrepiece of his Spring.
Currently in Mallorca at Ineos Grenadiers' first training camp ahead of the new season, Ganna has yet to sketch out his 2023 calendar in granular detail, but he provided an overview of the opening phase in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“I don’t want to get [to San Juan] in top form, but I don’t want to suffer too much either,” Ganna told La Gazzetta. “In the days ahead with the team, we’ll make a plan of attack for the races when I get back to Europe. I’ll go to the European Track Championships in Grenchen [February 8-12]. And in the Spring, it’s the Classics and the Giro d’Italia.”
Ganna helped Dylan van Baarle to victory at Paris-Roubaix last April and he confirmed to La Gazzetta that his Spring would be oriented more towards the Hell of the North than Milan-San Remo. He acknowledged that he still had improvements to make in road races of a certain distance.
“I’ll do different training,” he said. “In the finale of races, it’s been the case that I haven’t been as sharp as I was at the beginning. I’ll need to work on intensity after a certain number of hours, to be ready in the key moments. I’ve spoken about it with my coach [Dario] Cioni.”
Ganna spent more than five weeks off the bike following his remarkable late-season displays on the track, when his Hour Record of 56.792km was followed by fifth individual pursuit world title, which he claimed in a new world record time of 3:59.636.
Those performances put a different gloss on a sometimes-trying season in which Ganna had struggled on his Tour de France debut and then lost his world time trial title in Wollongong. The 26-year-old confessed that he had taken some criticism overly to heart. “I won’t drop the head anymore,” he said. “Maybe I listened to others too much and I would have done better to let it wash over me.”
While Ganna spoke of “seeking new objectives” in 2023, he is aware that his race programme brings him back over some familiar ground, most notably at the Giro. The Italian has a 100% record in Giro time trials, and he has claimed the maglia rosa on the opening day in his two previous appearances in 2020 and 2021.
Ganna will look to repeat that feat in Ortona on May 6, where Remco Evenepoel will offer stiff competition in the Giro’s 18.4km opening time trial, and the pair will also be the favourites for the 30km test to Cesena on stage 9.
Asked if he ready for months of coverage of their impending duel, Ganna said: “Yes, although… you know a lot can change in five months.”
