“I’m a bit disappointed to not win today because I was not far away. It was a very long and hot day with a lot of dangerous points. I kind of liked the last climb. I hesitated a bit in the last sprint and Van Aert passed me super fast, but the third place is still great. I’ve always liked sprinting. When I was younger I was the smallest so I always finished last in sprints, but now in a 5km long climb I can do good in sprinting, although not good enough to beat Michael Matthews and Wout van Aert. It wasn’t the plan to win today but since BikeExchange and Jumbo-Visma wanted to catch the breakaway, then it became another opportunity for us to go for the win so we tried. In the early crash, I hit the ground but not too much. It was nothing bad for me, I came back quickly.”
