Ganna fell short in the Flemish hills, Küng ignored team plans: "You have to follow your intuition"

Due to his fantastic spring, Filippo Ganna was considered the favorite for the Tour of Flanders. After an aggressive race, however, it was clear that the Italian from INEOS Grenadiers significantly lacked on the Flemish slopes. Ultimately, he sprinted to eighth place, but at a proper distance from winner Tadej Pogacar. In front of him, Stefan Küng rode to seventh place after a race where he ignored the team's orders.

Ganna finished third in the E3 Saxo Classic but did not start as leader in Bruges. "We had Magnus (Sheffield, ed.) as our leader today," he explained in the flash interview. He reached the front of the race before the final with several strong riders. 'The goal was to anticipate and be with the big guys up front before the Kwaremont. But in the end, I gave it my all, and Magnus crashed."

That changed INEOS Grenadiers' plans. Ganna was dropped from the leading group and fell back to the peloton. "I tried to be as fresh as possible at the end, but my legs didn't do what they were supposed to. I suffered a lot, but I'm glad I could fight in the final.' Did he start too early, then? 'I just followed the team's plan. I did my job."

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Stefan Küng finished seventh in the Tour of Flanders.

Küng ignored team plans: "You have to follow your intuition"

Küng rode a great race, but it didn't go according to plan. "The plan was actually to race defensively," said the Swiss rider from Groupama-FDJ. "But as I said in the morning, you have to follow your intuition. It was a special situation, with the crashes and all. The pace was very high on the Eikenberg and Wolvenberg, and some of my teammates had already been dropped. I thought it was a good time to go, and I rode away with a lot of speed. We were with a good group. Maybe I got too excited, but I wanted to create a gap in the peloton."

I was somewhat successful, but at the beginning of the final, it was clear that the favorites were catching up. "Unfortunately, the cooperation wasn't excellent, so we lost a lot of our lead before the second passage of the Kwaremont. After that, it was a disappointment because I still felt good on the Koppenberg, but I was a bit worn out. I needed some time to recover, which is not possible here."

Although he ignored his team's plans, he has no regrets about his decision. "If I want to have any chance of winning, I have to give it my all. I was racing aggressively and wasn't just riding for seventh place, where I finished. I would have liked to have had a lead on the Taaienberg to ride with the top riders. From then on, anything would have been possible. But I have no regrets and am happy with my performance today."

Read also

Tadej Pogacar answers questions and praises teammate: "People won't understand how strong he was"

Adrie van der Poel talks about Mathieu's illness and impact of the crash: "You won't know until tomorrow or the day after tomorrow"

Pogacar dominates on Oude Kwaremont and wins the Tour of Flanders, van der Poel finishes third after crash

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