Road World Championships: Italy power to mixed relay TTT victory with huge rides from Ganna, Longo Borghini and co

Italy stormed to their first victory in the mixed relay team time trial at the Road World Championships in Montreal, with Filippo Ganna, Matteo Sobrero, Mattia Cattaneo, Elisa Longo Borghini, Monica Trinca Colonel and Vittoria Guazzini harnessing their combined might against the clock.

They put nine seconds into second-placed France, whose team of specialists took home silver in what was a close edition of the mixed relay format.

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It’s been a long victory in the making for Italy, who have been on the podium of this event three times before.

“The other day we were talking about what we could do, how we could gain time and everyone gave everything,” Guazzini said. “The girls were super strong, the guys as well, and we were motivated already on the drive here so we just left it all out there.”

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Poland set the early benchmark time, putting a minute and a half into previous leaders Estonia after catching Mauritius during their ride, but they were bettered almost immediately as Norway beat their time by just 0.13 seconds.

By this point, though, all the nations were on the road, so the stronger, quicker squads were coming thick and fast. Spain duly delivered to take 38 seconds out of the best time, led home by Mireia Benito to go into the hot seat.

Former champions Switzerland took a blow when Stefan Küng had to change his bike mid-effort after breaking his handlebars, meaning Mauro Schmid and Stefan Bissegger finished their half of the relay 35 seconds down and leaving the women a lot of work to do if they were to get a medal.

ITT world champion Marlen Reusser put in a huge ride to try to make up that deficit, and their women’s leg was actually 16 seconds faster than the Italian women, and whilst that saved their medal hopes, it wasn’t enough to contend for the win.

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With the likes of Juliette Berthet and Bruno Armirail in their squad, France came closest to the mark, but none of the last three teams could touch Italy’s fantastic time. They were celebrating early as soon as it became clear that Australia weren’t going to trouble their time, meaning the Italians got to swap blue for rainbow for the first time since this format was introduced in 2019.

France settled for silver for the second year running – their third time finishing second in the race they’ve never won – whilst Switzerland’s third was a small consolation prize after Küng’s mechanical dampened a really impressive ride from their women.

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