Ganna about Tirreno Adriatico Time Trial: “I’m still young but I’m starting to feel old. It’s my seventh Tirreno-Adriatico

Filippo Ganna had talked about how it was more efficient to work on the time-trialing, but into 2023 the Italian is putting in effort to perform at the stage-races, and Tirreno-Adriatico is his next goal.

“I’ve been messaging with my coach about the weather. He thinks it should be the same for everyone and so it’s a lottery for everyone," the Italian said in a press conference ahead of the race. "There’s only really one corner, the rest of the course is fast, even if it does rain. We’ll see but I don’t think it’ll be easy, whatever the weather. I don’t know how my rivals are going or if they’ll be competitive. We’ll see on Monday afternoon.”

The Italian is the big favourite to win this afternoon's time-trial in Lido di Camaiore. With a lot of his competition absent or making their racing debut the pressure will be on Ganna to take his first win of the season.

“I’m still young but I’m starting to feel old. It’s my seventh Tirreno-Adriatico, I’ve always ridden as a professional because it’s always nice to race in Italy and feel the support of the Italian tifosi," he continued. "I hope I don’t disappoint them. I focused on the Tour de France and other things in 2022 but I’m happy to be back at the Giro d’Italia this year and I’m happy with my calendar."

After having finished second at both Vuelta a San Juan and Volta ao Algarve, the bar is set high for the powerhouse. However, despite him having freedom, he's most likely chasing stage wins throughout the week as Thymen Arensman and Tom Pidcock take the GC responsibilities, as he focuses for the spring classics.

“I’ve already ridden the Vuelta a San Juan and the Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta. Now I’ve got Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo and then Belgium for the Classics. The Giro will come quickly after that, making for a busy first half of the year. I’ve already told the team I’ll be on holiday in June, with my phone off," he continued. 

This week builds an important goal for Ganna however. “I want to do well, otherwise I wouldn’t have come. I always want to do well in the time trials but I also want to show I’m a road rider too. So if I have to do extra work in training on my road bike, then I do it," he admits.

"I’m not setting myself any limits for Tirreno, I’ve got the freedom to ride my own race but you never know how the race will unfold in the early season, especially in the cold and rain, which is expected. It’s a hard race again this year, with three stages over 200km and three stages with more than 3000 metres of climbing. I’ll suffer but that’s part of racing," he concluded.