Italy flies into the gold medal final with the men's team pursuit quartet and in the voices of its protagonists you can hear both the satisfaction for the result achieved, the fatigue from a demanding end to the season, and the desire to face the challenge against Denmark without feeling defeated before the start.

Here are the words of the "captain" of the Italian quartet Filippo Ganna: «We left Italy with the desire to step on the podium and we've already achieved the first result! We went strong, with Magagnotti who in the second race performed really well. Lamon did his job as always, sitting on Johnny's wheel for me is like sitting in an armchair. Of course, energy levels are what they are after 70 days of racing but tomorrow... we'll be there».

And the word passes to Alessio Magagnotti, the debutant in the Italian train: «Personally, I can say that the qualification was useful for me: I made many mistakes, but in the second race I was much more focused and more aware of my possibilities, especially I knew what I shouldn't get wrong anymore. I don't know about my teammates, but I was going all out, we lowered our time by almost two seconds compared to the morning, we went really strong. This is my first quartet with the big guys and I must confess that I missed the adrenaline that only the track can give. My teammates? They welcomed me really well and above all they proved to be a great group. After the first race, where I made many mistakes, they complimented me and only later at lunch did we talk about what I got wrong and they gave me useful advice. And we continue to work to keep improving. The final against Denmark? It will be extremely difficult but believing costs nothing, so... we believe!»