"Right now, I can’t believe it. It was an incredibly hard day, from the start. The whole team were keen to be in the breakaway, as we had tried many times in the last few days and it hadn’t clicked. I felt super good from the start, going full gas from the first minute. I made it to the break and then some guys from my team came from the back so I could sit back. It was just perfect.
Today’s has been a team effort. I’m the lucky one who scored the win, but everybody in the team worked so hard for this. It’s a victory for the team, and not for me alone. In the closing kilometres, ‘Plappy’ [Luke Plapp] played a big part by following all the moves so they wouldn’t chase me down. On the climb, ‘Bling’ [Michael Matthews] and Ben [O’Connor] were key too. It was unbelievable. I was worried the climb would be too hard for me and, when Ben started pacing, I was unsure I could go all the way to the top like that. It was good for me that the climb became stop-and-go - that style of climbing suits me better. It was a good situation, because we knew we had ‘Bling’ in the back. So, on the downhill, I focused on avoiding crashes and even lowering the pace of the group. Then, once the descent was over, I broke away on my first try.
I didn’t really have an idea of how close the chasers were in the finale. I started to cramp up a bit with 4k to go, so I was a bit worried. I stayed on the back, hoping Tejada would sprint from the front. Then at some point he forced me to take the lead. I launched my sprint a bit late, and I was afraid I was going to miss out on the stage win like last year in Toulouse. But I found my legs, went for it, and got it.
I have worked super hard for this win. I came close last year, and to be able to win… I need a few hours to realize what actually happened today, because at the moment I’m still a bit speechless."
