Ganna underlines Tour de France form with third Italian TT title

National Championships Italy 2022 - ITT - San Giovanni al Natisone - San Giovanni al Natisone 35,6 km - 22/06/2022 - Filippo Ganna (ITA - INEOS Grenadiers)- photo Tommaso Pelagalli/SprintCyclingAgencyÂ©2022

Ganna blasts to victory at Italian nationals (Image credit: Sprint Cycling Agency)

Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) claimed the third Italian time trial title of his career on Wednesday with a dominant ride that underlines his form ahead of the Tour de France.

Ganna, who won the title in 2019 and 2020 but missed out last year, dominated this year's event, beating Mattia Cattaneo (QuickStep-Alpha-Vinyl) and Edoardo Affini (Jumbo-Visma) to the top spot of the podium.

Ganna is also the world champion and will therefore not wear the Italian champion's tricolore skinsuit until at least September, and even then he will be favoured to retain the rainbow bands for another year.

Ganna, riding the new disguised Pinarello Bolide TT bike, set a time of 40:29 on the 35.6km course in San Giovanni al Natisone, which was largely flat and suited to the more powerful riders.

He beat Cattaneo by 36 seconds, with Affini third at 50 seconds. Last year's winner Matteo Sobrero (BikeExchange-Jayco) could only manage fourth but was the only other rider to finish within a minute of the winning time.

Ganna was only four seconds up on Cattaneo at the mid-way checkpoint but blitzed the second half of the course to put the title out of sight.

Ganna's victory underlines his status as favourite for the opening time trial at the Tour de France next Friday. The Tour kicks off with a 13.2km course in Copenhagen, with the first yellow jersey up for grabs.

Ganna has won two world titles, three national titles, and six stages at the Giro d'Italia but has yet to make his Tour de France debut.

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Deputy Editor. Patrick is an NCTJ-trained journalist who has seven years’ experience covering professional cycling. He has a modern languages degree from Durham University and has been able to put it to some use in what is a multi-lingual sport, with a particular focus on French and Spanish-speaking riders. After joining Cyclingnews as a staff writer on the back of work experience, Patrick became Features Editor in 2018 and oversaw significant growth in the site’s long-form and in-depth output. Since 2022 he has been Deputy Editor, taking more responsibility for the site’s content as a whole, while still writing and - despite a pandemic-induced hiatus - travelling to races around the world. Away from cycling, Patrick spends most of his time playing or watching other forms of sport - football, tennis, trail running, darts, to name a few, but he draws the line at rugby.