Filippo Ganna beats tech guru Daniel Bigham to pursuit gold at cycling world championships

GLASGOW – Britain’s Daniel Bigham saw a world title snatched from his grasp by a man he helps to go faster, when Italian Filippo Ganna won a thrilling final in the men’s individual pursuit on Sunday.

Bigham, one of the most sought-after performance engineers in cycling, who also happens to be a world-class track rider, led from the start. He was 2.1 seconds ahead with 750 metres (three laps) left, but Ganna reeled him in.

For Ineos Grenadiers road powerhouse Ganna, twice the road time trial world champion, it was consolation after Olympic champions Italy lost in the team pursuit final to Denmark on Saturday.

“Thanks to Dan for an amazing battle in this velodrome,” Ganna, 27, said after claiming his seventh track world title, six of them in the 4km individual pursuit.

Aerodynamics guru Bigham was part of Britain’s gold medal-winning team pursuit squad at the 2022 track world championships in France and is eyeing next year’s Olympics in Paris.

Bigham’s biological prowess, combined with his aerodynamics expertise, helped him to break the Hour milestone last August, smashing the record of Belgium’s Victor Campenaerts by travelling 55.548km in 60 minutes around a Swiss velodrome.

When he is not on his track bike, he spends his time developing kits that give elite cyclists the marginal gains that can be the difference between success and failure.

He worked with the Denmark team pursuit squad, who won the 2020 world title in Berlin in a then-world record time.

Two months after his own Hour world-record ride, he helped Ganna to take it off him, being part of the technical team behind the Italian’s stupendous 56.792km in Grenchen.

On Sunday at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow, Ganna again showed the benefits of having one of cycling’s sharpest minds in his corner, although Bigham must have wished his friend had taken the night off.

“We were training together a couple of months ago in Andorra with Ineos and Filippo said I’m not doing the IP this year, I’ll make it a little easier,” said Bigham.

“Then today I saw his name on the start list. I sent him a message and he said, ‘Yeah, I thought I would make it a bit of fun!’ I thought, ‘game on!’”

The pair shared a warm embrace after the race, with Bigham saying they had a “mutual respect” for each other’s skills.

“That’s my problem I guess, I’m always telling people what they’re doing wrong and how they can do it better.”

It was Italy’s first track gold of this year’s World Championships.

Lotte Kopecky then provided Belgium’s first when she won the elimination race, producing a powerful sprint to beat France’s Valentine Fortin, with Jennifer Valente of the United States in third place.

It was Valente’s 19th world championships medal, making her the most decorated American track cyclist.

The day’s final action was historic for Portugal, with Iuri Leitao winning the omnium to become his country’s first track cycling world champion.

The 25-year-old was dominant throughout the multi-discipline competition, winning the scratch race and tempo race before getting a second place in the elimination race gave him a cushion going into the climax, the points race.

He then held off France’s two-time omnium world champion Benjamin Thomas to spark emotional scenes with his team.

Portugal has a pedigree in road cycling but, with only one velodrome in the country, track cycling is the poor relation.

Said Leitao: “We have a little bit more than a decade of track cycling and being the world champion of, in my opinion, the biggest race in the UCI World Championships is unbelievable. It’s really a big step up for us.”

Meanwhile, newly crowned Dutch world road champion Mathieu van der Poel said he used a nearly hour-long stoppage to Sunday’s showpiece race to answer the call of nature in comfort.

The elite men’s race was brought to a standstill after 80km when anti-fossil fuel protesters from a group named This is Rigged blocked the road.

While some riders took on food and drink or had a massage in a team car, van der Poel’s needs were rather more urgent and he managed to find a house for a comfort break rather than having to skip behind the nearest hedge. REUTERS