“His fitness certainly seems to be on the rise” - Filippo Ganna’s coach Dario Cioni on the Italian’s form ahead of Milano-Sanremo

After a rather underwhelming start to the season for Filippo Ganna, where he has failed to take a victory thus far, the Italian is now looking ahead to the first Monument of the season at Milano-Sanremo this weekend.

The INEOS Grenadiers rider finished second at the race last year behind Mathieu van der Poel, outsprinting Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogačar on the Via Roma to take the runner-up spot and his best result in a Monument to-date.

However, this year there are question marks over Ganna’s form ahead of Saturday’s race, as his results have been somewhat lacklustre since he began his season in Australia in January. He has even been unusually uncompetitive in the time trials, as he failed to win in both of the two races against the clock that he has done this season, finishing sixth on stage 4 of the Volta ao Algarve and second behind Juan Ayuso on the opening stage of Tirreno-Adriatico.

According to his coach Dario Cioni though, Ganna’s form is improving, as he said in an interview with Bici.Pro, he said “His fitness certainly seems to be on the rise, because we didn't start this season with the best Ganna. In Tirreno he suffered from the cold for a day, but then we saw the regular Pippo again, who did a series of excellent tests. He was in the breakaway, was at the front for a day and helped his teammates to take the final climb with the leading group, showing that he is in good condition”.

On Ganna’s chances at La Classicissima this weekend, Cioni said “you have to look at who you would attack, but I would say it is much more difficult for him to finish the Poggio alone than in the wheel of the first. If he could have stayed in Van der Poel’s wake last year, things would have been different”.