Teams & Riders Filippo Ganna Discussion Thread

[Mayomaniac]

It's got nothing to do with bike handling for me and it's all about physiology. To me seems like a guy with a power profile massively geared towards TTs and not classics, and even if he can manage distance it will blunt his edge. Also I think his main advantage over a guy like Van Aert is gonna be aero which largely evaporates on a TT bike.

For every Cancellara there's a bunch of top TTers that do nothing in classics, and I think Cance was a highly underrated puncheur.

Nope, Ganna's main advantage is raw power, Wout is more aero. Wout's coach has said that Ganna is the one guy who beats him in raw power.
The guy was doing 460W for over 30min in ITTs at the age of 20, he just has a freakish engine.
Also:

 

[KZD]

Apparently Ganna is considering a hour record attempt at sea level already next year, in late summer. I find the timing to be curious as it would be between two of his main goals of the season the Tour and the World Championships.

 

[Red Rick]

Nope, Ganna's main advantage is raw power, Wout is more aero. Wout's coach has said that Ganna is the one guy who beats him in raw power.
The guy was doing 460W for over 30min in ITTs at the age of 20, he just has a freakish engine.
Also:

One thing I will give Ganna is he's trained a LOT to be a track team pursuit bully and will full focus on road he should improve in a lot of the endurance things. But Van Aert and VdP gave nice demonstrations this year how even 200km race performances don't translate that well to the monuments and how you can destroy everyone on one cobbled section at 50km to go and then be flailing about 20km later.

Perhaps this should be in Gannas favour with his limited explosivity. But then an IP god isn't gonna have terrible 1 minute power is he.

 

[Red Rick]

Apparently Ganna is considering a hour record attempt at sea level already next year, in late summer. I find the timing to be curious as it would be between two of his main goals of the season the Tour and the World Championships.

Surely that would be on Tour supercompensation?

 

[will-10]

Apparently Ganna is considering a hour record attempt at sea level already next year, in late summer. I find the timing to be curious as it would be between two of his main goals of the season the Tour and the World Championships.

Post-GT is a pretty standard approach, considering he's keen for a sea-level attempt. Suggests an attempt off the back of the TdF.

 

[Mayomaniac]

One thing I will give Ganna is he's trained a LOT to be a track team pursuit bully and will full focus on road he should improve in a lot of the endurance things. But Van Aert and VdP gave nice demonstrations this year how even 200km race performances don't translate that well to the monuments and how you can destroy everyone on one cobbled section at 50km to go and then be flailing about 20km later.

Perhaps this should be in Gannas favour with his limited explosivity. But then an IP god isn't gonna have terrible 1 minute power is he.

Compared to most IP guys his 1min power i his weakness, he's a slow starter compared to the other IP specialists.
I agree that his edurance in thi kind of race is still a question mark.

 

[Nirvana]

Apparently Ganna is considering a hour record attempt at sea level already next year, in late summer. I find the timing to be curious as it would be between two of his main goals of the season the Tour and the World Championships.

He said that riding a GT gives him a shape that can't be obtained in any other way, even if you train specifically, so he thinks that at the back of a GT after a bit of recovery is the best moment to go for it.

 

[Nirvana]

Yeah I'm not a huge believer in Ganna as a classics rider for some reason.

Ganna himself probably doesn't believe in that considering what he said to Marca.
The only one day race he always mention is Sanremo.

 

[memyselfandI]

He can have great results in suitable classics already now if it suits his overall calendar. He's got every bit of endurance he needs, it can be seen from the way he's able to work in gt's. P-R is naturally the best classics for him.

 

[Sciatic]

He can have great results in suitable classics already now if it suits his overall calendar. He's got every bit of endurance he needs, it can be seen from the way he's able to work in gt's. P-R is naturally the best classics for him.

But wasn’t the same said about Tony Martin in his prime TT days (when he also was a monster on some Tour stages)? That with all that power he ought to be able to get podiums/wins in the Classics like Cancellara did? It would seem that it has a lot to do with what each rider prioritizes and is willing to train for?

 

[memyselfandI]

But wasn’t the same said about Tony Martin in his prime TT days (when he also was a monster on some Tour stages)? That with all that power he ought to be able to get podiums/wins in the Classics like Cancellara did? It would seem that it has a lot to do with what each rider prioritizes and is willing to train for?

Ganna's got at least small hint and good memories from Roubaix as he finished at the tail of 15 strong escape group in juniors edition. Martin took 13 seasons before he entered P-R, of course it doesn't take anything out of his great career, just that he probably wasn't that interested about it. But Ganna ticks many boxes as we see he's got the engine, he likes to rip in sterrato and what ever and he's been there Roubaix and he's still interested.

 

[BlueRoads]

Ganna's bike handling seems to be better than Martin's, and he's also heavier, if that counts for anything...

 

[Sciatic]

Ganna's got at least small hint and good memories from Roubaix as he finished at the tail of 15 strong escape group in juniors edition. Martin took 13 seasons before he entered P-R, of course it doesn't take anything out of his great career, just that he probably wasn't that interested about it. But Ganna ticks many boxes as we see he's got the engine, he likes to rip in sterrato and what ever and he's been there Roubaix and he's still interested.

Good points, and I would certainly love to see him there powering over the pave’!

 

[memyselfandI]

Good points, and I would certainly love to see him there powering over the pave’!

+1

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

In 2020 Ganna won 6 out of 7 TT's, only losing to Evenepoel before his crash. This was in January 2020 in a TT on a roadbike, with a large portion uphill. After that he cleaned up the rest of the year at 100%, winning both NC and WCC.

Since 2021, he has won 7 out of 14 TT's. He won the WCC with a 6s margin, but lost OG, NC and EC. Riders who beat him in those 7 TT's are:

Van Aert, Küng (3x), Dennis (3x), Thomas (2x), Porte (2x), Cavagna (2x), Bissegger (3x), Tratnik, Herrada, Hirschi, Cattaneo (3x), Van Wilder, Masnada, Soler, Sobrero, Affini, Roglic, Dumoulin.

Human after all. However, one of his biggest opponents, Stefan Küng did 15 TT's since 2021, and only managed to win 5 (Euro championships being the most notable). In the same period, Van Aert did 5 TT's and only won 2. Pogacar won 1 out of 9. Evenepoel 3 out of 10. Roglic 4 out of 6. Dennis 3 out of 8. Bissegger won 3 out of 12. That means of the most notable TT riders, only Roglic managed to put down better %.

 

[rghysens]

Ganna's bike handling seems to be better than Martin's, and he's also heavier, if that counts for anything...

Probably less than the fact that he won the espoir version of Paris-Roubaix in 2016.

 

[Red Rick]

What a beast

 

[Mayomaniac]

What a beast

Good thing that he has been putting on some additional upper body muscle mass for Roubaix, otherwise he might have been fighting for the stage win...

 

[Red Rick]

Good thing that he has been putting on some additional upper body muscle mass for Roubaix, otherwise he might have been fighting for the stage win...

Now we know why has this resting smug smiley face.



He knows what is up

 

[Netserk]

What a beast

You are not allowed to be impressed yet.

Why do people continue overestimating Ganna like this? Calling him favourite for MSR, Roubaix, GCs with long MTFs. Maybe let him prove he can do something noteworthy in a road race apart from winning from a break before this maddening hysteria.

 

[tobydawq]

You are not allowed to be impressed yet.

This is impressive. And actually something he has done now, instead of something people think he can do. That isn't an important distinction to you?

But still, nothing about his performances or qualities has proven to me that he can win monuments. I might be proven wrong, of course, but the guy has two top 20 placings ever in one-day races - one of them a 17th place in Gran Piemonte, the other a 5th spot in Coppa Sabatini...

 

[yaco]

He's the most influential rider in the peleton in winning and helping his team win races.

 

[Nirvana]

I watched the replay of the climb on Eurosport keeping an eye on him, around 500 meters to go he was far behind then in the last 300 meters he did an impressive out of the saddle final dig overtaking various riders at superior speed (they show that again after Bissegger's finish). That's already the second time this year, after Manosque in Provence, that he shows that he can put down a long power sprint, at least on shallow uphill gradients.

 

[Wvv]

He turns his plans around and rides Tirreno instead of Paris-Nice. Battle with Remco coming up, but Ganna is the favourite on these course.

 

[hayneplane]

In 2020 Ganna won 6 out of 7 TT's, only losing to Evenepoel before his crash. This was in January 2020 in a TT on a roadbike, with a large portion uphill. After that he cleaned up the rest of the year at 100%, winning both NC and WCC.

Since 2021, he has won 7 out of 14 TT's. He won the WCC with a 6s margin, but lost OG, NC and EC. Riders who beat him in those 7 TT's are:

Van Aert, Küng (3x), Dennis (3x), Thomas (2x), Porte (2x), Cavagna (2x), Bissegger (3x), Tratnik, Herrada, Hirschi, Cattaneo (3x), Van Wilder, Masnada, Soler, Sobrero, Affini, Roglic, Dumoulin.

Human after all. However, one of his biggest opponents, Stefan Küng did 15 TT's since 2021, and only managed to win 5 (Euro championships being the most notable). In the same period, Van Aert did 5 TT's and only won 2. Pogacar won 1 out of 9. Evenepoel 3 out of 10. Roglic 4 out of 6. Dennis 3 out of 8. Bissegger won 3 out of 12. That means of the most notable TT riders, only Roglic managed to put down better %.

Looks like we have a nice competitive era for TTs with different types of riders able to be favoured more depending on length of parcours and how hilly or technical the roads are. No behemoths like a Cancellara or Tony Martin but lots of strong guys.