September 25/20 11:56 am - Ganna Takes Home Win for Italy, Cataford 41st
Posted by Editoress on 09/25/20
Filippo Ganna gave the host nation of Italy their first world title of the 2020 Road World Championships on Friday in the men's time trial. Remarkably, it is the first ever Elite Men's world title in this discipline. Belgium's Wout van Aert continues to have an exceptional year, finishing second, with Stefan Kung (Switzerland) taking the bronze medal.
Filippo Ganna
Canada's lone entry, Alex Cataford, finished 41st, 3:49.31 down on Ganna's winning time of 35 minutes and 54.10 seconds. Cataford, the third rider off, was the first to break the 40 minute mark. Canada's other entrant to the race, Hugo Houle, made the decision earlier in the week not to race and continue recovering after the Tour de France for Sunday's road race.
Alex Cataford
"It was tricky out there with the conditions," explained Cataford. "I was early so I got caught in a bit of a storm with some rain and heavy wind, but I was happy with the ride I did; gave it everything I had. It was a good experience to race the world championships, and good preparation for heading into the Giro d'Italia, where there are a fair bit of time trials [three]. So now, it's about regrouping and refocussing for the road race on Sunday for Woodsy [Mike Woods]."
The men raced the same 31.7 kilometre course as the women; out from the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari along one side of a valley and back on the other. However, the men faced much stronger gusting winds, with a stiff headwind on the way out and stormy conditions with some rain for early starters.
Italy's Edoardo Affini set a strong time of 37:26 that stood up until Geraint Thomas (Great Britain) smashed it by nearly a minute. Thomas' time stood until the final four riders began finishing. First van Aert surpassed him by 10.3 seconds (with the fastest second half split of the day), then Kung bumped him down another notch.
Former world champion Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands) struggled on the way back, finishing a distant tenth, however, the real battle was expected to be Ganna versus defending champion and Ineos team mate Rohan Dennis (Australia). Ganna was storming, over 20 seconds ahead of Dennis at the halfway time split. Ganna continued to ride strongly on the return, with the second fastest split, but Dennis faded with the 12th fastest split to finish fifth overall, behind Thomas. Ineos as a team did well, with the win plus fourth and fifth places.
Road World Championships: Men's ITT results
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