“It was a good day. I was a bit disappointed that I was 15” seconds behind Remco [Evenepoel] at the top of the climb. From there on, I decided not to take any risks on my way to the finish… and then, on the same corner where [Florian] Lipowitz crashed out of the race, I almost went down too. I couldn’t see that right-hand turn properly during the recon, because there were some cars around that area. I hope ‘Lipo’ is okay and that he will recover fast. It’s sad to see one more GC contender fall out of this Tour. I wanted to go for the win today, but Remco is the current Olympic, World and European champion in the ITT, so it was never going to be easy. Chapeau to him. He is a brilliant rider.
The Tour de France is not over yet. We still have quite a week ahead of us. I have a nice gap on my rivals, but you never know what may happen on a particular day. We now have to go with good confidence and morale into the weekend.”
