Turin, Italo Calvino wrote, is a city that invites rigour, linearity and style.
“We have a radio earpiece that’s only about as big as a hearing aid and once I started I couldn’t hear anything anymore, so I said to myself ‘Filippo, try to remember the corners and don’t make any mistakes, otherwise you’ll end up on the ground,” Ganna said.
Ganna’s mind had been clouded by some doubts in the build-up to this Giro, where he was, like last year, the outstanding favourite to win the opening time trial.
The Tour of Romandie was good preparation but it was also a blow to my morale because I didn’t manage to bring home a result in either of the time trials and being so many seconds off the first riders hurt me a bit.
Ganna was among the last wave of riders to begin on Saturday, and as he rolled down the start ramp, he knew that the time to beat was that of a fellow countryman and friend, Edoardo Affini .
In winning the opening time trial of the Giro in successive years, Ganna emulates the feat of Francesco Moser, who was the first maglia rosa in both 1984 and 1985.
Ganna has no overall aspirations at this Giro – “We have team leader 1 in Egan Bernal and 1A in Pavel Sivakov” – but, like the Sheriff, he has designs on landing multiple and diverse prizes in rapid succession.
“No, but every now and then you journalists put the pressure on,” said Ganna.
Back then, he conceded the maglia rosa on the first summit finish at Mount Etna on stage 3, and he envisaged a similar fate here, perhaps at Sestola in three days’ time.
Ganna and Ineos will hope for a repeat of last October, where he helped himself to four stages and the team scored a surprise overall victory through Tao Geoghegan Hart.
I wanted it even more this time than I did last year, and it gives me a bit of morale for the Giro.
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