"The double commitment will not be easy to manage but he has broad shoulders" - Vincenzo Nibali confident in Filippo Ganna's hopes of World Championship success on both road and track

Filippo Ganna will be one of the few riders taking part in the Glasgow World Championships both on the road and in the velodrome. One of the stars of modern-day Italian cycling, Ganna has been praised heavily by one of his nation's greatest-ever cyclists, Vincenzo Nibali.

“Filippo is a leader, a driving force," the 'Shark of Messina' tells Gazzetta dello Sport in a pre-World Championship interview. "I think maybe after the Paris Games he could try at least a year to dedicate himself only to the road, to the Classics."

Ganna was a key cog in the INEOS Grenadiers Classics campaign earlier this year, runner-up at Milano-Sanremo and gaining top 10 finishes at both Paris-Roubaix and the E3 Saxo Classic. The 27-year-old's forte however, remains his ability when racing against the clock.

"Between the track and the stopwatch, meanwhile, it's as if he is most at home," continues Nibali. "It comes naturally to him and then he worked a lot on it. He seemingly was born to ride in a velodrome or go fast against the clock. The double commitment will not be easy to manage but he has broad shoulders. He knows how to do it."