At this moment when he has a good day he is just almost unbeatable.

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This our final episode of Kilometer Zero from the 2021 Giro D'Italia began as a portrait of Filippo Gana,

the Italian time-trialing superstar whose popularity has been one of the most striking features of the past three weeks.

It can seem at stage starts in particular where Gana gets louder cheers than the pink jersey,

that the entire future of Italian cycling rests squarely on his broad shoulders.

On Friday, stage 19 of the Giro starts in his hometown Verbania,

and on Sunday he will line up as the favourite to win the final time trial into Milan.

If he does, it would be his fifth consecutive time trial victory at the Giro, having won all three last year and the only one in two in this year.

So we thought we'd speak to people about Gana and also to Gana himself,

to try and learn a bit more about the 24-year-old 6-foot 4-inch colossus of the current generation of Italian pros.

But then I spoke to Victor Campanarts. It was something that Campanarts said in his press conference after winning stage 15 that peaked my interest.

He had reinvented himself as a road racer Campanarts explained,

because time-trialing his previous speciality had become too competitive.

Gana in particular had raised the bar so high that the rider like Campanarts,

who's the world our record holder, let's not forget,

and the rider who's gone close to winning time trials and grand tours in the past,

basically gave up and tried something new, in his case becoming an aggressive road rider.

Following his stage when Campanarts had to withdraw with an injury on the second rusty,

but I caught up with him on the phone to ask him to elaborate a bit on what he had said.

Of course, of course, we are cautious and don't take any risk of further injury,

...