Mathieu van der Poel: "I liked that it was a hard race"

August 15 ^th 2019 - 18:10

“It was a very hard race indeed. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw on my computer that our average speed was over 50km/h after three hours of racing. It was hard all day and I kind of liked it like that. At the end, I had to gamble that Jumbo-Visma would be closing the gap [on Stephen Cummings] as well as myself. There were a few other strong guys at the front. It was a difficult situation but with 7 or 8km to go, I already had in my mind that I was waiting for the sprint. I didn’t have many options so I was just waiting and trying to time my sprint perfectly. Many riders aren’t contending the GC anymore I think, because of this breakaway today. It’s gonna be very hard to defend the jersey.”