05-07-2025
Ganna first to pull out of Tour de France in blow for Ineos
Former time-trial world champion Filippo Ganna pulled out of the Tour de France on Saturday's opening stage after struggling to shake off injuries from an early fall. The Italian Ineos rider would have been a contender on the lengthy stage 5 individual time-trial, having won the world title in 2020 and 2021.
Ganna, a former two-time time trial world champion, crashed on a bend with 132 kilometers to go. The Ineos rider took a long time to get going again, after changing bike and even shoes, to catch up with the peloton. But he was dropped on the Cassel climb and decided to call it a day some 65 km from the finish of the first stage in Lille.
It's a big blow for the Ineos team and for the 28-year-old Italian, who had enjoyed a fine classics campaign, including a second-place finish at Milan-Sanremo in March. Ganna was a candidate for victory in the stage 5 time trial in Caen, as was Stefan Bissegger.
The Swiss rider from the Decathlon-AG2R team also fell on Saturday, four kilometers after Ganna, in the company of Belgian Thibau Nys. Visibly stunned, Bissegger underwent a concussion protocol before getting back on his bike. But he then put his foot down on this very nervous first stage in the North.
