In Montreal, the Italians finally broke the vicious circle. After silver and two bronzes in the mixed team time trial, they climbed to the top step of the podium for the first time in the history of the discipline, which appeared in 2019. A time of 51:32,28 — and an eight-second advantage over France, nineteen over Switzerland. A victory that looks not like an accident but like the result of long, painstaking work.
Italy's lineup was assembled not on the principle of "who is in form" but on the principle of "who has already seen it all." Filippo Ganna after his defeat by Remco Evenepoel in the individual time trial, 34-year-old Elisa Longo Borghini, who had never before won gold at the World Championships, and Monica Trinca Colonel, who until recently worked as an optician. Three men and three women whose combined experience outweighed the raw speed of their young rivals.
The Swiss were considered the main favorites, but Stefan Küng punctured a tire right at the start — and the team was left without one of its strongest time trialists. Australia, the two-time champion, finished fourth. France, as in previous years, took silver, but once again a few seconds were not enough. Italy, meanwhile, led from the middle of the course and never surrendered the advantage.
The mixed relay is not merely the sum of two races. It is when the men set the pace and the women hold it, when a weak link in either half of the team can cost everything. Here tactics and psychology matter more than pure power: you have to calculate your strength precisely over 20,3 km of the men's part and the same of the women's, not burn out in the first kilometers and not crack on the final climb.
Imagine an orchestra where every musician knows their part by heart, but the conductor is not one person but the whole team. One false note — and the entire symphony collapses. Italy played without a single false note, though before the start Ganna even had to urgently borrow a helmet from a teammate at Ineos.
This victory shows that in cycling, where youth and data are increasingly favored, maturity and the ability to work together are still valued. For Italian cycling this is not just a rainbow jersey — it is a signal that systematic work on team disciplines has finally begun to bear fruit.
