{"id":205634,"date":"2026-06-29T10:13:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T10:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=205634"},"modified":"2026-06-29T10:13:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T10:13:42","slug":"ganna-milan-win-italian-national-championships-as-vismas-affini-crashes-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2026\/06\/29\/ganna-milan-win-italian-national-championships-as-vismas-affini-crashes-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Ganna, Milan Win Italian National Championships as Visma\u2019s Affini Crashes Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Probably the biggest news to come out of last week\u2019s orgy of national championships was that Visma\u2013Lease a Bike\u2019s Edoardo Affini crashed heavily on a descent in Friday\u2019s Italian National Time Trial Championship, making his participation at the Tour de France far from certain.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Another blow to Visma\u2019s Tour ambitions?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If he fails to become fit for the Tour, it would be another blow to Jonas Vingegaard\u2019s ambition to beat arch-nemesis Tadej Poga\u010dar and complete the rare Giro-Tour double, which the Slovenian accomplished in 2024. The crash occurred 6 km into the 40.3 km race from Santuario di Vicoforte to Barolo, when a tyre reportedly<\/a> blew off the rim, causing the bike to hit a guardrail at high speed.<\/p>\n

Affini was transported by ambulance to a hospital in Mondov\u00ec. A statement by Visma<\/a> later said that hospital X-rays and CT scans showed no broken bones, which was a major relief considering the violence of the crash and the fact that it would have ruled him out from riding the Tour. However, he did sustain<\/a> a deep gash in his groin, which required internal and external stitches to close. As a result, the team kept Bart Lemmen out of Sunday\u2019s Dutch Road Race Championships in Nijmegen in case he had to replace Affini in the Tour.<\/p>\n

Last year, in his first Tour de France with Visma, Affini played an important role in positioning Vingegaard in the peloton while riding through potentially hazardous situations and keeping him safe during the chaotic final kilometres of a bunch sprint. He is meant to play the same role this year and would also be an essential part of the team\u2019s time trial squad for the important stage 1 TTT on July 4 in Barcelona.<\/p>\n

If Affini is unable to ride, it would be the team\u2019s third major loss from the Tour squad after the loss due to injury of Christophe Laporte earlier in the year and Wout van Aert during the recent Tour Auvergne\u2013<\/strong>Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes.<\/p>\n

Ganna and Milan win national titles<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In actual racing news, to no one\u2019s astonishment, Filippo Ganna (Netcompany INEOS) won the Italian National Time Trial Championship by more than 2 minutes. It was the seventh national ITT title of his career. Luca Giaimi (UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG) finished second, at 2:07, with Mattia Cattaneo (Red Bull\u2013BORA\u2013hansgrohe) coming third, 2:36 adrift.<\/p>\n

Lidl-Trek\u2019s powerful sprinter Jonathan Milan won Saturday\u2019s Italian National Road Race Championship, beating Tommaso Dati (Team UKYO) and Alessandro Romele (XDS Astana) with a typical powerful, long-range burst of speed. It was a welcome change of fortune for the 25-year-old Milan, who had a disappointing Giro d\u2019Italia, where he was soundly beaten in the points classification by 22-year-old Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) and did not win a stage in his home Grand Tour until the final day in Rome. This was Milan\u2019s first national championship win.<\/p>\n

Groupama rules France<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The French National Road Race Championships were a clean sweep for Groupama\u2013FDJ United, with 23-year-old Romain Gr\u00e9goire winning the road race, for his first national title, and R\u00e9mi Cavagna taking the time trial. In 2025, Gr\u00e9goire had finished second in the event, outkicked at the line by sprinter Dorion Godon, then racing for Decathlon Ag2R La Mondiale (now Netcompany INEOS). But Sunday\u2019s 225.5 km course, which began and ended in La Tour-du-Pin, was a puncheur\u2019s delight consisting of 14\u00bd circuits and 29 short, punchy climbs.<\/p>\n

Gr\u00e9goire broke away from a six-rider lead group on the last of those ascents, with 3.2 km left to ride, and soon had an irresistible gap. He beat Paul Lapeira (Decathlon CMA CGM) by 13 seconds, with Joris Delbove (TotalEnergies) coming third, at 14 seconds.<\/p>\n

In Thursday\u2019s time trial, Cavagna beat defending and three-time champion Bruno Amirail (Visma\u2013Lease a Bike) by a whopping 48 seconds, with his 23-year-old Groupama teammate Ewen Costiou finishing third, at 1:03. It was the fourth national championship title for Cavagna, as he won the ITT in 2020 and 2023 and the road race championships in 2021.<\/p>\n

Lots of no-shows in Belgium\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Sunday\u2019s Belgian National Road Race Championship suffered from its proximity in time to the Tour de France, with numerous riders, including Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull\u2013BORA\u2013hansgrohe), reportedly<\/a>pulling out with certified medical excuses. Participation at the Belgian national championships is mandatory, hence the need for a doctor\u2019s note. In addition to Evenepoel, the missing included Wout van Aert (Visma\u2013Lease a Bike), who is actually injured, Cian Uijtdebroeks (Movistar), Tiesj Benoot (Decathlon CMA CGM), and Evenepoel\u2019s teammate Maxim Van Gils.<\/p>\n

For the record, Rune Herregodts\u00a0(UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG) was the surprise winner of the road race title, outsprinting Jonas Rickaert (Alpecin\u2013Premier Tech) and Fabio van den Bossche (Soudal Quick-Step) to take the biggest win of his career. Alec Segaert (Bahrain Victorious) won Friday\u2019s ITT championship race, beating last year\u2019s Belgian road race champion, Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG), by 6 seconds, with Segaert\u2019s teammate Vlad Van Mechelen coming third, 14 seconds adrift. The course had been shortened to 20.7 km due to the intense heat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Probably the biggest news to come out of last week\u2019s orgy of national championships was that Visma\u2013Lease a Bike\u2019s Edoardo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":205635,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[4293,7142,9061,9062],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-205634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-cycling","tag-filippo-ganna","tag-jonathan-milan","tag-national-championships","tag-national-road-race-championships","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"\nGanna, Milan Win Italian National Championships as Visma\u2019s Affini Crashes Out - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Probably the biggest news to come out of last week\u2019s orgy of national championships was that Visma\u2013Lease a Bike\u2019s Edoardo Affini crashed heavily on a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2026\/06\/29\/ganna-milan-win-italian-national-championships-as-vismas-affini-crashes-out\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ganna, Milan Win Italian National Championships as Visma\u2019s Affini Crashes Out\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Probably the biggest news to come out of last week\u2019s orgy of national championships was that Visma\u2013Lease a Bike\u2019s Edoardo Affini crashed heavily on a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2026\/06\/29\/ganna-milan-win-italian-national-championships-as-vismas-affini-crashes-out\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-29T10:13:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2026\/06\/Jonathan-Milan-profimedia-1107150128-CVR.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"990\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"660\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tereza\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Siegfried Mortkowitz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2026\/06\/29\/ganna-milan-win-italian-national-championships-as-vismas-affini-crashes-out\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2026\/06\/29\/ganna-milan-win-italian-national-championships-as-vismas-affini-crashes-out\/\",\"name\":\"Ganna, Milan Win Italian National Championships as Visma\u2019s Affini Crashes Out - 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