Tinkoff-Saxo’s Peter Sagan was once again at the front of the Vuelta field battling for the win on stage 5 to Alcalá de Guadaíra. After team effort to bring Tinkoff-Saxo’s sprinting ace into position, Sagan finished 3rd admitting that he could feel the effects of yesterday’s grueling stage finale.
“I want to thank my teammates – they did a fantastic job for me again to bring me into a good position for the final sprint. It was a technically difficult finish and today I didn’t have the legs to win. I was in a great position but I think that yesterday’s very hard stage, that, looking back, really didn’t suit me, took a lot of energy and I paid the price today”, says Peter Sagan after he crossing the finish line behind stage winner Caleb Ewan.
“Probably, I tried too hard yesterday but we want to try to take the win everyday even if it looks difficult. Tomorrow, I will try to save myself a bit more. It’s a day for Rafal, who is our leader here, and we will have to work for him. It’s a hard stage, but I will not have to fight for the stage win in the finale”, adds Sagan, who now leads the points classification by 25 points.
Going into details with the team effort on the 167.3km stage 5 of La Vuelta, Tristan Hoffman, Tinkoff-Saxo sports director, tells that the squad could share the workload with other teams looking to fight for the stage win on the uphill finale in Alcalá de Guadaíra.
“Today, the other teams took more responsibility, which meant that we didn’t have to work the entire day at the front. I must say that our guys did a fantastic job in the final 15km pulling for Peter and bringing him into the sprint in a very good position. It was a very hard stage for Peter yesterday, while both Ewan and Degenkolb, who won and finished second today, had taken it easier. Peter was more tired but he still managed to take third and we just have to say that the two other guys were faster on the final 100 meters today”, comments Tristan Hoffman before adding about tomorrow’s highly undulating stage 6 with an uphill finish to Alto de Cazorla.
“Tomorrow is pretty tough, not extreme, but the whole day is up and down. The finale is not super crazy but it will be the first real test for the GC riders and we will naturally support Rafal with the entire team. We will have to protect him and bring him to the bottom of the final climb in a good position from where he will take matters into his own hands”.
