After winning fourteen track medals between 2016 and 2023, Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) will forego track racing starting in 2025, in order to focus entirely on road racing.
Ganna told Adnkronos during an event at the Technical University of Milan that the progressive shift towards the road resulted from his racing schedule.
“If you look at the list, the time spent on the track is less than the many events. In my case, it will mean no longer participating in World Championships and World Cups on the track and maybe doing some more training to improve on the road,” Ganna said.
Ganna has achieved significant success on the track, including an Olympic gold medal in the team pursuit in 2021, and 2022 and setting the hour record, by riding a stunning 56.792km in one hour.
Foreshadowing his decision, the six-time track individual pursuit world champion skipped the world championships in October held in Denmark this year.
The pre-eminent time trialist of his generation, winner of the 2020 and 2021 world time trial title, Ganna has been eclipsed by Remco Evenepoel this year.
While Ganna claimed the bronze medal in the team pursuit at the Paris Olympic Games, Ganna admitted that he was disappointed with his silver medal in the time trial when he was 15 seconds slower than winner Evenepoel.
Once again, the two-time time trial world champion (2020, 2021) finished second to Evenepoel in the time trial at the World Road Championships in Zurich, this time, he was seven seconds behind the Belgian.
In 2024, he did add to his palmares the Italian time trial championships for the fifth time and also took time trial victory on stage 14 at the Giro d’Italia.
Ganna will continue to use the track as part of his training to achieve his objective to win, “as much as possible.”
“Obviously I am not abandoning the track, it is needed for those load volumes that I cannot maintain on the road.”
