After the World Championships in Zurich, the last races, the holidays and the first training camp, there will be time to celebrate New Year's Eve in style, then Filippo Ganna will leave for the Canary IslandsIt's too cold in his area to continue his training. For the same reason, he went to the track in Montichiari in recent days, but to find the right intensity on the road, the Piedmontese has organised a retreat together with Dario Cioni, who will join him in a few days. And just with his coach We had our last chat of 2024 to understand where the national Pippo's preparation is going.
2025 is not expected to see any competitive track activity, or at least, if there is any, it will not take precedence over road racing, as was the case in 2024. This is the fate of all track cyclists. Teams are demanding the right to have them full-time, and for them too, the doors are opening to challenges of a different nature and renewed ambitions. Among the new features of the new season is the new location of the first training camp. After years in Palma de Mallorca, in fact, the Ineos Grenadiers She moved to Oliva, on the Costa del Sol, sharing a hotel with Visma-Lease a Bike.
«It had been discussed for a while now – explains Cioni – and in the end the riders who have been in the team for the longest time had pointed out that they always did the same laps. It was in the air that we would change to try something different."
So, since we're talking about something different, how was Philip's season outlined?
A few things had already been said midway through last year. For example, the discussion about the classics. Because of the Olympics, we didn't do Roubaix in 2024, because Filippo wanted to do well in the Giro. It was immediately said that it should simply be postponed, and so we included it as a major event for next year. Like the Sanremo and also the Tour, which last year was not included in his plans because it did not coincide with the Olympic programmingPhilip wants to return to France after the first experience. 2022 didn't go as expected, so I think he wants to try his hand at a well-prepared Tour. Same thing for Roubaix. He had prepared it a little better two years ago, now the idea is to return because of the Northern classics it is the one that in our opinion suits him best. But first there's Sanremo: he wants to come back and win.
Is it important not to have track races?
It doesn't change much, because anyway the track is part of his way of training, so much so that the other day he was in Montichiari. Regarding the competitions, it's clear that the Olympics, especially the quartet, require time to work together and that was perhaps the biggest difficulty. Match the schedules of 4-5 riders to do specific sessions where we can find harmony and automaticity. That requires extra time, which this year we will have at our disposal.
How will your approach to racing be different?
In 2024, which was an Olympic year, it was made a slightly more relaxed start. Instead in any other season he did with Team Sky and then Ineos, Filippo had always started well and always won, if not in the first stage race, at least in the second.So it'll be important to get off to a good start, and to do that you need to have a good winter. Last year, by the way, he didn't do very well because he got sick. Now he is further ahead, also because he trained more and got back into it earlier. At the end of 2023 he had caught the flu and in December it was worse than this year and then he left for Australia.
Will not leaving for Australia allow you to work better in training camp?
If you don't do Australia, the first race you can do in Europe is the Valenciana or Besseges and the team does both. It's not so much the date you start that matters, but how you get to the first race.We learn something every year, and so, given how last year went, we approached winter differently. For this reason we will go to the Canary Islands, so as not to be slowed down by the weather in its areasYou know it's beautiful there every day, you don't miss a day because of the rain, you don't miss a day because of the snow, you don't miss a single day of training. You know that for two weeks you don't have to worry about the weather and you can continue with your program. If you have to be a bit more intense, a cold winter like the one we're having in Europe risks complicating things a lot.It will be a quality retreat where some work will also be done behind the bike.
Does having these important goals mean that we will also be doing course reviews?
I think we'll make a stop at Sanremo, even though a date hasn't been set yet, because the schedule is pretty packed. So, she might decide not to go because she feels comfortable, or we might do a one-off like last year, when we started quite far away and stopped at Poggio. Instead he will go to see the Roubaix, probably at the end of the first block of classics in the North, which will break into two parts.
Will there be a Ganna group for Sanremo?
I don't think so for Ganna. The classics group of our team isn't very large, so the guys who do the classics, maybe Knowing that Filippo has two important objectives in Sanremo and Roubaix, they will ride in his support.
In all of this, are time trials still a reason to pay attention?
Yes, in the sense that the time trial is still the objective at the Tour. It's also true that this year with that kind of World Cup in Rwanda we will have one less targetSo there will be many opportunities to win in the time trial, but there are no courses around that are too congenial for a specialist like him, like the World Championships.
Won't he run it?
A decision hasn't been made yet, but I don't think it's likely Filippo will make an appointment. The path is tough, there are significant costs and a thousand aspects to considerThe Zurich route wasn't a difficult one, but it certainly wasn't very fast. The time trials, on the other hand, will be for specialists at the Giro, those are for sure.
Do you think having such different challenges ahead of you, where you have to give everything, not in time trials or on the track, is a motivation for Ganna?
He is very motivated. Sanremo is not a novelty, because it has been coming first for two yearsTwo years ago he finished second and this year, if it hadn't been for the puncture and the mechanical problem on the descent, he would have still held up well to the selection on the Poggio. It was in the group that we were going to play for the victoryAt Sanremo he already knows what he has to do, I think he has much clearer ideas. Roubaix will be more to discoverTwo years ago, he was among the top riders, but he struggled a bit. This year, he hopes to be at the front and compete.
Why do Roubaix and not Flanders?
The choice was made to focus everything on one. Given Filippo today, one thinks that Roubaix is more suitableAnd trying to do both could have been to the detriment of Roubaix. The races he'll do in the North before Roubaix are yet to be decided: Ghent could be there, but that remains to be seen. What can be said is that before Roubaix, he will do two or three races in the North.
After the Canaries, will you return to the training camp in Spain with the rest of the team?
Exact. Filippo will stop by his home for a few days and then join his companions in DeniaWe'll be going starting January 22nd and will be launching the first races from there. What else can I say? Happy New Year and let's hope everything goes as planned.
