"I scared a few people..." - Filippo Ganna angry not to be allowed on breakaway in his home stage

Filippo Ganna lives in Verbania where today's stage of the Giro d'Italia finished. The Netcompany INEOS rider tried getting in the breakaway but found himself to be a heavily marked man, which meant he didn't stand a chance to fight for one of his main goals.

That this was a key day for the Italian, winner of the race's individual time trial, was no surprise. Hence, many riders looked towards him as the wheel to follow during the flat start of the stage. Often in such a day, this late into a Grand Tour, it is a matter of timing and luck to make it to the front group.

Ganna missed it and in his attempts to bridge across, he found the whole peloton chasing him on.

"It was nice to see the whole group on my wheel. Come on... I scared a few people today," he said in a post-race interview, disappointed. The stage was one for the breakaway as no-one in the peloton had intentions of controlling the day, so Ganna knew quite quickly that it was a day to forget - results wise.

"We tried it a few times, together with Matteo (Sobrero of Lidl-Trek, ed.). That was the plan, but as soon as we looked back for even a moment and asked for a handover, they all stopped. We knew it could happen like that".

"It would have been nice to achieve a result on my own, but oh well". Instead, Ganna could enjoy a calm and slow final kilometers on roads he knows too well. "It was nice to do this descent towards my house without traffic for once, when everything is cordoned off and beautiful".

"I saw quite a few familiar faces on the course. I don't know where they are now, but my parents are here at the finish. Hopefully, I can say hello by the team bus in a bit".

Verbania is a popular destination for pro cyclists to live in, right near the Alps and also one of Italy's famous lakes; and it was a rider who spends a lot of time in the city who ended up winning the stage. "Alberto [Bettiold] won, that's nice for him of course," he concluded.