Milan silver and Ganna bronze in the pursuit, Balsamo bronze in the women’s omnium- time.news

by time news
from Marco Bonarrigo

Milan surrendered to the US champion Lambie, Ganna beat the Swiss Imhof in the final (And now I’m going on vacation). The blue beaten by Kopecky and Archibald

How else could it surprise us Super Pippo Ganna after grinding 10,073 kilometers in 70 days of road cycling, after about twenty grueling track races, after an Olympic title in the velodrome, one world title and two Europeans on the asphalt and three stages won at the Giro in the last year? Eg alternating in a few hours the very human frailty and the inhuman strength of Friday on the Roubaix track, when – like Forrest Gump – Goofy suddenly felt tired.

At the gunshot that kicked off the (on discounted paper) qualification for the final of the individual pursuit of the World Cup – a test where he has already won four world titles – Gannon plunged in thirty seconds of total blackout. While the willing Russian Gonov launched himself on the four kilometers, ours dangled with the lost gaze of the rookie behind the visor of his helmet. It took an abundant minute and a shout from the coach Villa on the track to get him out of the tunnel but the desperate chase (his fastest lap) only served to make him profit the final for the bronze.

To take his place – in a blue team that never ceases to amaze – his dolphin, the shy 21-year-old from Friuli Jonathan Milan, thought about it, one of the magnificent four Olympic gold medals in Tokyo, one that according to the technicians has an engine even more powerful than that of the master. In the final for gold, Milan defended himself with honor and with silver by Ashton Lambie, the retro American with a handlebar mustache who in life, unlike the blues, devotes himself only and only to the pursuit, transformed into a personal religion.

Great Milan but the real show – against all rules and regulations – was given by Ganna in the final for the bronze against the predestined victim, the Swiss Claudio Imohf. When the shot was fired, Pippo almost broke the blocks and launched himself on the ring, scoring all the best split times ever on each lap. Almost in the middle of the race – something never seen in a final – he doubled and knocked out Imhof, at 2.000 past in 2’02 “256, at 3000 in 3’01” 758 which translated into Italian means that he was about to become the first man to break the four-minute wall at sea level
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But a few meters later the jury – relentless – has I turned off the stopwatches by waving the red flag in his face: by regulation, when you reach your opponent the race is over. Ganna chewed bitterly and muttered between his teeth (The idea was to set the record, but I caught my opponent too soon. Don’t look for me for a month when I’m on vacation), but Pippo is there and with him are Milan and the 19-year-old rookie Manlio Moro, a splendid seventh Friday.

And if we talk about versatile blues, here it is Elisa Balsamo, the Piedmontese policewoman who less than a month ago won gold on the road in Belgium and silver in pursuit on Thursday. Engaged in the Omnium, the pentathlon of cycling, the modern literature graduate fought point by point and sprint by sprint against the British phenomenon Katie Archibald. His bronze (the silver slipped away ten laps from the end of the points race) after an endless season is worth gold even if Elisa at the end of the race was disappointed with the lost position. Today for the Azzurri the day of revenge and redemptions: we field Elia Viviani in the Omnium and the couple Paternoster / Barbieri in the women’s Madison as well as Martina Alzini in the individual pursuit. The party is not over yet.

October 22, 2021 (change October 22, 2021 | 22:23)

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