Cioni and Ganna, like the cat and the foxAfter the Tirreno, they won at Imola. And after Imola, it was Palermo's turn. Behind Ganna's pink jersey, obtained with the victory in the first stage, there is a lot of one and a lot of the other. There is the study of the Team Ineos-GrenadierJust reread the day to realize.
Cioni studies the wind
Prima the weather forecast, studied three days beforeThe wind. Where it comes from. How it changes. What time it changes. What time it rises and what time it falls. Once you have the exact report in hand, when it comes to setting the departure time, they decided to let Dennis go first (14,14), then Thomas (14,36), finally Ganna (14,58), so that individual flagships could share information on weather changes.
Ganna's message to Viviani
On the eve of the World Cup, something he hadn't done before, Ganna sent a message to Viviani. As he happens to do on the track every time a test worries him.
«This time – says the pink jersey – I was afraid of the descentIt's not easy to go at almost a hundred miles an hour with your hands on the appendages and that strong wind. At the first bend I arrived too long, the front brake saved my life. I didn't realize how fast I was going."
But Viviani, as usual, cut it short.: «You weigh more than 70 kilos – he wrote – what do you expect a little wind to do for you?».
Breakfast at 9
Ganna had breakfast at the hotel at 9 a.m., and at 10 a.m. the Ineos-Grenadier team's team cars moved from the Isola delle Femmine hotel to the Monreale ring road, where the buses were parked. At that time, the sirocco had already set the air ablaze, with temperatures approaching 37 degrees. An oven! And what gusts…
"We'd already seen the initial section the day before," Cioni recalls, "but it wasn't possible to go beyond the fourth kilometer. I did it by bike, but I didn't notice anything. So as soon as we arrived, we did this lap of the route without pushing, but to memorize every pitfall. How he wanted to take the curves. If there were potholes or manhole covers in his trajectory. Things he saw and reported by me.We've done many time trials together, he trusts us and the system works."
Ganna confirmed: «I was mainly thinking about not falling "He said, 'Because several people had problems. I thought about riding my bike. And the bike, I can swear, becomes a blade. I set up the lines carefully, with Cioni behind me telling me where the manhole covers were.'
Lunch in the flagship
On the way back to the start, Ganna ate his usual pre-race rice meal. He might have gladly gone for another lap, but getting back to Monreale from Palermo wasn't that easy, and they settled for the first observation.
«Philip has gone up on the rollers for 25 minutes Cioni explains, "doing the jobs he knows by heart. Everyone knows their routine, which doesn't change unless the distances are too long or the routes are unusual. During the warm-up, he swallowed a gel and he left without a water bottle.For such a short time you can feel good without drinking."
Among the most unusual technical notes, the chalk that Ganna put on his hands when he left.
«In time trials – he explains – you don't use the usual gloves and to keep your hands dry on the handlebars, that powder is very useful».
Ganna, the nerve-wracking wait
The nerves that had prompted him to write to Viviani the day before, he managed on his own upon arrival. Sitting in the hot seat, Ganna watched his most likely rivals pass by. And when Affini also crossed the finish line, his facial expressions spoke volumes. In less than seven days, the rainbow jersey and the pink jersey fell on his shoulders, the result of victories at the time trial world championships and the first stage of the Giro d'Italia respectively.
"So far, he's won four world championships on the track," he said before saying goodbye, "one in the time trial, and now this time trial has come along. Let's hope we don't end up here. What's more, seeing Sobrero's seventh place? I'll text him now, he really ran a great time trial."
