Sixth place in Paris-Roubaix after second place in Milan-San Remo: it cannot be said that the season of the great spring classics went badly for Filippo Ganna, even if there is no shortage of regrets because perhaps more could have been done. And then there are the hopes, not to say certainties, for the future.
Indeed, it is interesting to note that both today's Italy coach, Daniele Bennati, and yesterday's Azzurri coach, Davide Cassani, are sure that sooner or later the Olympian of the Tokyo quartet will make it, given all the means, physical and technical, in order to be able to win the Inferno del Nord race even at an absolute level, which in 2016 he already made his own at a youth level. Honors were therefore paid to a monster for this type of racing like Mathieu Van der Poel, and also to his great rival Wout Van Aert, yesterday's champion of bad luck, the name to bet on is Ganna, certainty and no longer hope of blue cycling also on the road and not only on the track and in the time trials, even if Pippo will never be a runner in major stage races and therefore we will still have to wait to see if there is an heir of the Pirate Marco Pantani ("we are not going through a rosy period from the point of view of talents - underlines Bennati -, the others are better equipped»). «A rider like Filippo must not distort his nature, he has shown that one day he will be able to win these great classics - is Bennati's consideration from the microphones of Radio Rai -. He has proven that one day he will be able to win, he has all the credentials to do so » . Cassani, who is also active as a publicist, has more certainties and has put them in writing: «I truly believe that he will win this race (Cassani refers to Roubaix ed) - the consideration of the former coach -: he demonstrated that on the pavé there can go. I know very well that rivaling phenomena of the caliber of Van Aert and Van der Poel is not easy but Pippo can beat them in the future because he has room for improvement».
As for the defects, yesterday Ganna suffered in the corners, losing two or three meters every time compared to his breakaway companions and therefore spending energy to recover. Hence some difficulties even in terms of athleticism (a fundamental factor in a classic like the French one) which perhaps cost him being behind when Van Aert and Van der Poel scored the decisive sprint. It was a moment paid dearly, because then in the Arenberg forest Pippo went fast proving that he fully deserved the sixth place finish. He still has a pinch of anger for those colleagues who, as he said after the race, «said they had cramps but then sprinted». But cycling is also this.
