"I’m super happy with the win today. But not everything is perfect, Joao [Almeida] is going for x-rays after his crash. Of course, it’s beautiful to be in yellow and win the stage but like Tim [Wellens] just told me, it was a luxury to have Joao so close in GC. It was a good opportunity for him as well. He’s in great shape so I really hope it’s nothing broken and he can continue.
Mathieu [Van der Poel] and I both know this finish very well, with some nice memories. We wanted the same thing, to win on that iconic climb but I think maybe he left too much energy on the road yesterday to be up there today.
For me, the day went like we planned. We did an amazing job, all the teammates were perfect. It was a hot day, super fast… We spent a lot of energy but we had a plan, we stuck to it, and we won. Tim led me out to the bottom of the dial climb. Normally, Joao should have been there but I could follow Remco [Evenepoel]’s slipstream. And then Narvaez did a superb job to keep things under control until the sprint. I can be confident in my sprint, especially with a teammate to set me up.
The last two days, it was some strange racing from Visma. Let’s see their approach in the next days. The week-end will be easier and then stage 10 will be a proper hard day of suffering with hot temperatures and lots of climbs all day. There can be some movements but we’ll see then."
