The World Cup went wrong. The Hour record. Silver in the quartet with a great time. And then the pursuit with the world record. Wanting to reread Pippo Ganna's ending, before closing the file and moving on, we asked again Dario Cioni, the coach who is always one step behind, having also explained to us why.
The Nice retreat, the last of the old season and at the same time the first of the next one, closed the interminable 2022 of the Ineos GrenadiersLast night the "break ranks" was given and From today the riders and technicians will be able to take a breatherThe next appointment will be the December retreat in Mallorca and by then we will also start talking about programs and the paths to achieve them.
Good morning, Dario, we're leaving Australia. There were two irresistible days and two less so.
Il World Cup went wrong. Eventually the facts have confirmed that it was a bad dayThe quartet, on the other hand, lost in good weather; that wasn't a bad day. They found a tough Britain and also DenmarkAnd it helped us understand that there will be work to be done in view of the Olympics.
Do you think the recovery between the Hour and the quartets was sufficient?
It was the time that there was, the World Cup couldn't be moved. In fact, the day after Grenchen they travelled in vans, so maybe one more day would have been usefulBut you also have to look at the stopwatch.
That?
If the quartet had done 3'50” then it could have been considered a disappointment, but they did 3'46″033 which remains one of the best performances everThe others did 3'45"829, we're talking about 20 hundredths.
Is it possible that the quartet was a useful transition after the Hour, towards the individual pursuit?
Pippo was keen to make the quartet do well, the individual didn't even know if he would do it. But compared to the quartet, the individual one did it with a longer relationship with whom he may have found himself better. However, these are choices that are also made for the speeds that increase.
In fact, one would have expected that Bigham would also have had a good chase after the quartet…
Instead it didn't hold, while Pippo and also Milan have grown from test to test and that is the difference between those who have the bottom of the road and the track cyclistPippo is one of the few who runs a faster time in the final than in qualifying. At the British Championships, Bigham ran 4:06, still a good time. But to do it repeatedly you need another base. And in the end he took the bronze with 4'09”.
Can we say that you were a bit pressed for time?
Very tight, so much so that Compared to before the World Cup, the program has been changed. In the last week, we've been going straight. Had we followed the plan, we were supposed to go to Grenchen two more times and do a time trial, which would have made us understand how far we could go in the real attempt. Instead we did a single 35-minute test the Monday before.
Would the time test have allowed the actual attempt to be handled differently?
We would have handled it better. We would have done the test on the Boardman distance, understanding if and how to aim for the 57 kilometersThe starting idea has always been the absolute record. With Pippo we knew we could beat Boardman's 56,375, but we never put pressure on him. We know he knows himself perfectly. With Bigham, the mental part was secondary, because he had all the references. Instead for Goofy, even if not in an… artistic way, the head is the real strong point.
So having a too rigid schedule would have been counterproductive?
Exact. Ganna should not be given limitsI understood this in the Giro time trials he won. One must not limit his horizons and that's why in Grenchen he had the famous three tables, the three scenarios that he would chooseA situation where he felt in control.
So that desire to accelerate ahead of time was the mind that tried to amaze beyond all limits?
I think he gave that sudden acceleration to make it clear that he was going for 57The drop in the last 10 minutes was more for a lack of comfort on the saddle, which was reflected in the performance.
You can also not answer, but could these problems have been caused by an inadequate case back?
There may be multiple factors. On the road, at every turn you relaunch, you get up, you move. On the track, you're... glued to the saddle.So in the previous days we tried to do a couple of maneuvers to make the situation more comfortable, but it wasn't enough. If we had done that test on 60 minutes, maybe we would have noticed it sooner..
In light of all this, one might say: try again soon…
We knew that We would all have learned something from this attempt by PippoDo it again? Either you go right away, because you're using the material and so we're talking about a few months. Or you wait for someone else to try, also remembering that the Olympics are in a year and a half.
Do you think they'll beat him?
Sooner or later someone will come, Technological development is continuous and many new phenomena are seen in groupsIt is a utopia to think that we have made the eternal record, the curiosity will be to see if someone will try soon convinced that they can beat it or if time passes, because they understood that it will be hard.
Are the narrowly missed 57 a regret?
No, we are convinced that we have done a huge feat, like consequence of work started a long time ago. There was a lot of talk about Bigham, but he only arrived at the end. And Pippo's riding position has always remained the same. It was Ganna's recordA gigantic record.
