Giro d’Italia: Ganna looks to follow world title with pink jersey in Palermo

Filippo Ganna at the Giro d'Italia
Filippo Ganna at the Giro d'Italia (Image credit: Getty Images)

A week on from victory in the World Championships time trial, Filippo Ganna is 15.1 kilometres away from writing another passage in Italian cycling history when the Giro d’Italia gets underway on Saturday afternoon. The Ineos rider will wear his new rainbow bands for the first time on the start ramp in Monreale, and he is heavily favoured to don the first pink jersey on the podium in Palermo’s Piazza Castelnuovo.

 37 years have passed since an Italian rider last swapped a rainbow jersey for pink at the Giro, when Giuseppe Saronni carried off the overall title nine months after the immortal fucilata di Goodwood had fired him to the world title. Ganna’s turnaround time is rather quicker due to the vagaries of a calendar redrawn amid the coronavirus pandemic. Or, as he put it to La Gazzetta dello Sport: “If somebody had told me that I’d start the Giro with the world champion’s jersey, I’d have told them to drink less…”

Barry Ryan
Head of Features

Barry Ryan was Head of Features at Cyclingnews. He has covered professional cycling since 2010, reporting from the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and events from Argentina to Japan. His writing has appeared in The Independent, Procycling and Cycling Plus. He is the author of The Ascent: Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche and the Rise of Irish Cycling’s Golden Generation, published by Gill Books.