"We were expecting a stage like this one in Châteauroux. The heat made it harder, and having Mathieu Van der Poel up the road didn’t help either. It turned out super hard for a flat stage.
We expect a very hot, hard stage tomorrow. There will be a huge fight for the break, as it’s the French national day and all French riders will want to put on a great show. It will be hard to control, but we will be up there paying attention to the other team’s moves. It’s not the hardest course, but it offers a lot of possibilities - also GC wise.
It was already incredible how Joao [Almeida] coped with his injuries the last couple of days. If I was suffering throughout the stage today, I cannot imagine how much he must have suffered. I have the utmost respect for him and I’m very sad he has to leave the race. Having him in the GC battle was a luxury for us. We now have to reassess our strategy so that not having him affects us as little as possible. He was in great shape and I’m really looking forward to him recovering and coming back to racing. And, of course, I now want to win this Tour de France for Joao, too."
