Filippo Ganna takes individual pursuit world title

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.

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.