"You need to know the parcours" - Filippo Ganna takes advantage of Volta ao Algarve confusion with solo sprint win

Filippo Ganna took the 34th professional win of his career on stage 1 of the 2025 Volta ao Algarve. It's unlikely the Italian will have ever had a victory quite like this one though, as he sprinted alone across the finish line, whilst most of the rest of the peloton were completely lost on the other side of the barriers.

Despite the incredibly bizarre scenes in which it happened, the win sees Ganna go into the overall race lead after the first day's action. Given he was at the front though, the Italian himself didn't seem completely sure of the chaos unfolding around him. "I know everyone went the wrong way, but I took the right corner," he reflects in his post-stage interview afterwards. "You need to know the parcours, you need to know the rules as riders," he adds.

"In the past, I've been the wrong way in a TT and I lost the race. So today, everything changed and I won!" Ganna continues with a smile. "We knew it was a tricky final, like every day here. But 'G' (Geraint Thomas ed.) was moving well and all the teammates did a good job when there was confusion during the roundabout so yeah, it went well."