"The pavés decided differently" - Filippo Ganna laments bad luck taking him out of Paris-Roubaix contention

INEOS Grenadiers started Paris-Roubaix with high ambitions but were struck by a lot of bad luck which ultimately took them out of the fight for the third monument of the season's victory. Filippo Ganna was the team leader, but couldn't be satisfied with what he had achieved when arriving to the velodrome.

The British team did a perfect job going into the first cobbled sector of Troisville, but the disaster began right away. With over half the team leading the peloton, Ganna punctured, completely missing out on the team's great positioning work at a key moment of the race. Connor Swift also punctured in the same sector.

The team was then forced to chase for many kilometers as in the peloton Lidl-Trek put in a strong pace, and the constant fight for positioning kept the rhythm high. Joshua Tarling had been given freedom to be in the peloton, but he faced stomach issues later in the race whilst fighting in the front groups.

Ganna was rather far away from the head of the race then throughout the majority of the race, but clearly had good legs on the day as unlike several other riders, he did not crack and managed to link up with some of the riders who went through the Trouée d'Arenberg in front.

At the end of the day he sprinted to a 13th spot, a modest result worthy of mention but far from what he had hoped for. He beat Madis Mihkels and Biniam Girmay in the velodrome on the final sprint, an impressive feat on it's own.

"Paris-Roubaix is the most beautiful, toughest and most unpredictable classic," Ganna wrote in an Instagram post following the race. "Today, the pavés decided differently but that's part of the game. Thanks to all my INEOS Grenadiers teammates for an incredible job"