He continues: “I reacted a bit too quickly to the late attacks from Christen and Ganna. That’s where I basically lost my chances for the sprint. We rode a great race as a team. Timo was in the break and then played a crucial role when he dropped us off at the front on the final climb. When you have someone like Matteo setting the pace, you know not many riders will be able to follow.”
Sports director Jesper Mørkøv also saw a strong team performance today. “We were in the perfect position at the right moments – first with Timo, and later with Matteo and Wout. It’s of course a shame that we couldn’t quite finish it off in the finale, but this gives us a lot of confidence for the rest of the week.”
“Before the race, I had marked a few stages where there might be opportunities, and this was definitely one of them. That proved to be the case. We can be satisfied with the way we raced today. It was a good day”, Van Aert concludes. Tomorrow, another challenging stage awaits in the Italian stage race, with the riders tackling the Santuario Beato Sante (4.2 km at 6.2%) deep in the finale.