Filippo Ganna takes individual pursuit world title
Italian rides into the rainbow jersey with a cushion of over four seconds
Italian Filippo Ganna took the individual pursuit world title in comfortable form at the Track World Championships in Berlin this evening.
Ganna set a new world record on his way to the final, where he faced off against the USA’s Ashton Lambie.
While Lambie took an early lead at one point stretching to just over 0.4 seconds ahead, it is the back end of the race where Ganna comes into his own. Once he took the lead just after the halfway point he quickly extended it to over two seconds and finished with over four seconds in hand.
Ganna, who rides for Ineos on the road, and Lambie, who rides with Huub-Wattbike when not with his national squad, have been at the forefront of individual pursuiting over the last couple of years.
Three times Lambie broke the world record for the distance between August 2018 and September 2019. He was the first person to go under 4.10 when he rode a 4:07.251 at altitude in Mexico in August 2018. Then the lowered it two times more last September at altitude in Bolivia to leave it at 4:05.423.
However, just under two months later Ganna would slash it to 4.02.647 in Minsk Belarus, a venue that isn’t at altitude.
Then today in Berlin in the qualifying round Ganna lowered it again to 4.01.934 for the distance.
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Than was enough to make him faster than the four man Ukrainian team pursuit squad that rode the same distance in team event on Wednesday.
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Having trained as a journalist at Cardiff University I spent eight years working as a business journalist covering everything from social care, to construction to the legal profession and riding my bike at the weekends and evenings. When a friend told me Cycling Weekly was looking for a news editor, I didn't give myself much chance of landing the role, but I did and joined the publication in 2016. Since then I've covered Tours de France, World Championships, hour records, spring classics and races in the Middle East. On top of that, since becoming features editor in 2017 I've also been lucky enough to get myself sent to ride my bike for magazine pieces in Portugal and across the UK. They've all been fun but I have an enduring passion for covering the national track championships. It might not be the most glamorous but it's got a real community feeling to it.
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