“We had a plan, we felt we could let the breakaway go, but it took nearly two hours to form a breakaway, so in the end we had to pull less than half the stage to control. Joao [Almeida] and Kevin [Vermaerke] did a great job to keep it together and then we could go for the stage with Jay [Vine] and Pablo [Torres] leading out on the climb and setting me up for a perfect attack.
I was really surprised on the top. [Enric Mas] flew past me like a rocket. I was not expecting it because I heard on the radio I was 40 seconds ahead of the chasers and Enric wasn’t mentioned. When he passed me, I was little bit shocked. I was sure he knew the downhill and I was happy to be with for the last 10 kilometres with headwind. I had no water. I knew I could beat it in the sprint. I appreciated that he committed fully, and I also committed fully to the line. Chapeau to him. It was a good race.”
