The workload was mostly on
INEOS Grenadiers even though many teams had interesting riders for such profile. Eventually Ganna found understanding at Alpecin-Deceuninck. "I have to thank my teammates, who rode all day. On the final climb I asked Van der Poel if his team wanted to help and they did. I have to thank them for that, because other teams didn't."
When the INEOS men had had enough and Laurens De Plus couldn't set the pace with his GC ambitions, Ganna attacked. "Maybe that was too early, but I didn't want Laurens to take risks for me and set the pace. That's why I didn't wait for the sprint, even though I knew I was taking a risk. Van der Poel was strong in the final and closed the gap. Not so strange, because he wanted to win too. So I understood that, I would have done the same."
Ganna's attack was therefore prompted by a lack of manpower at INEOS, but it was also a good test for Milano-Sanremo, for example. "I wanted to test myself after 6.5 hours of racing and see what my numbers were. It was a good test for the classics, which are of course long races. I'm disappointed for my teammates that I couldn't give them a stage win, but my legs felt good. Maybe I'll try again, because going for a GC will be too hard anyway."