Filippo Ganna made history on Saturday evening when he smashed through not only the UCI Hour record but also the technically unrestricted Human Best Effort previously set by Chris Boardman, riding a stunning 56.792km in one hour on the track.
“I think I'll never do again,” Ganna said in an interview following the successful Hour record attempt. “If I do it in the future [it will be] before going to retire like Wiggins, but I don't think before.”
Speaking about his mindset through the attempt, Ganna described a calm and collected start, before a painful finale.
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“In the start, nothing,” he said when asked what he was thinking during the process. “Just the normal protocol - to take the position and follow the line.”
With the attempt going well, Ganna began to let himself dream of breaking the 57km mark. “After 35 minutes, I say okay maybe I can do the 57k. But then I start suffering a lot for the position for my balls.”
Ganna described a turning point in the last 10 or 15 minutes when his position became too difficult to hold and his legs started to saturate with pain. From there, Ganna became focused on finishing and beating the record, rather than stretching to the 57km mark. He set out to “not lose time, because the job is just to arrive, and we are doing an amazing job, all together.”
Ganna praised his team repeatedly throughout his post-race interview, and it was certainly more than lip service – the planning and investment in the attempt by the team and Dan Bigham was considerable. Bigham, who held the previous record of 55.548km until Ganna’s ride, described his mastermind plan to beat his own record in an interview with Cyclingnews last week.
Beyond the planning and preparation, the cost of Ganna's bike and equipment alone ran well in excess of €75,000.
With that preparation and investment in mind, Ganna was sceptical about whether one of the current crop of young Grand Tour superstars, from Remco Evenepoel to Jonas Vingegaard, would be able to beat his record.
“If they do I’m happy… but I think I have the best team for trying to do this,” Ganna said. “Maybe if they joined the team they can try.”
Ganna also highlighted how different teams will have very specific priorities which could obstruct such individual goals, where mixing between track and road could prove challenging. “I think Ineos followed well what I wanted to do,” he said. “I think this result is not just because of my legs or my performance, but is more one effort of Team Ineos.”
Speaking about his plans to ride straight into the UCI Track World Championships after his extreme effort on the Hour record, Ganna said, “I don't know maybe I'm loco, maybe that's just that.”
However, it seemed that for Ganna a World Championship appearance was a mark of gratitude to the team that had done so much to deliver his Hour record. “I needed to say thank you, and I think starting the Worlds is the best thank you I can do.”
