"I can finally say it’s nice that it’s the holidays” - Filippo Ganna ends season with fifth placed finish at Gran Piemonte

Filippo Ganna has concluded his 2023 campaign with a fifth-placed finish at Gran Piemonte. The Italian of the INEOS Grenadiers finished best of the rest behind a four-man lead group.

“We tried to stay as close as possible to the front of the bunch on the climb," reflects the 27-year-old post-race to the official website of the INEOS Grenadiers team. "In the end, the legs are quite good. I’m a little bit disappointed because we were so close to the four ahead."

Andrea Bagioli was the eventual winner of the race, edging out Marc Hirschi, Alex Aranburu and Guillaume Martin with Ganna coming home an agonising 11 seconds down. Nevertheless, the Italian time-trial specialist, who has developed some sprinting prowess in 2023 can look back on this year relatively fondly.

"I just thank Thymen Arensman, after his bad crash in the Vuelta. He tried to give me the best position ever. The whole team worked really well. After the crash at the European Championships, to be here, it’s nice," Ganna concludes. "Yeah it’s nice that my shape is good, but now I can finally say it’s nice that it’s the holidays…”