"I’ll need to be at 110%" - Filippo Ganna chasing first yellow jersey at Tour de France

Filippo Ganna will be a crucial supporting rider at INEOS Grenadiers for the Tour de France, but at the same time he will have his own personal ambitions, that greatly revolve around the initial time-trial in Copenhagen.

Just off the back of a convincing performance at the Italian national championships where he took the title, he told Gazzetta dello Sport that yesterday was a step in the preparation for the Tour: “It’s a nice confirmation in view of the Tour. I suffered a bit with the heat and the humidity. I was struggling a bit and I couldn’t manage to find the right great. But we expected that, because I’ve just come down from altitude."

Ganna has taken already five wins this season, but the initial Tour time-trial and the World championships are the major goals of the season. He commented that he is not yet fully prepared, but will be in time for the Grand Depart. “We’ve tried 90% of the new material but there’s still the last 10% to come for Copenhagen. The tricolour jersey is very important but for the yellow jersey, I’ll need to be at 110%."

"The condition wasn’t super here, and I’ll need to do some fine tuning in the last few days. I’ll look to arrive fresh to the start, like I did at the Giro in the past two years," Ganna added. As he'll have to battle the likes of Wout van Aert, Stefan Küng and others that are to be announced, it will be a complicated challenge, but the World champion should be the man to beat.

Another obstacle that he's yet to overcome into the Tour is to make sure the team won't uffer from further Covid-19 infection, of which he has talked about aswell, critic of some attitudes: “We have to accept the internal rules. Just look around, we know [COVID-19] is there but practically nobody is wearing a mask. People should have more respect for athletes".

"It’s necessary to be more careful and to see what happens in the next few days. The next rivals to overcome are the PCR tests," he concluded.