Kevin Vermaerke (Team dsm-firmenich): “A step in the right direction for me”

August 20 ^th 2023 - 19:04 [GMT + 2]

Coming into this day everyone was sitting quite close in the GC, with only a couple of seconds separating the top15. We had a plan to go for the first intermediate sprint, and I picked up a couple of seconds there to move myself up to third in the provisional GC. We wanted to play for the stage win in the final, but it was pretty hard to get a gap because of the headwind. It all came together in the last kilometer and we did a super long sprint there. I was coming from behind with some momentum and tried to find my space to overtake the others, but I didn’t and thus I couldn’t get my hands on some more bonus seconds. Anyway, I’m happy with third. It’s nice to go home with something. It’s definitely a step in the right direction for me. I’ll take some confidence from this onto the next few races.