Today I absolutely wanted to win, but in the end I was really surprised by the wind and was up front too early. One more man would have been better, or I could have taken the risk and jumped forward from rear wheel to rear wheel with Saba. But afterwards you know everything better. The position was good and I felt good, but as I said, we were pretty much taken by surprise by the wind. And the guys had worked so well. I really would have liked to bring it home for us and therefore am pretty irritated.

The race today reminded me very much of Great Britain. The roads were narrow, the asphalt was rough and it was all pretty hectic. In the last few days you can’t really speak of classic sprints. The stages were really very hard. And yesterday I had a nice slip-up. My left hand was so frozen that I barely had any feeling in it and 1000 meters before the finish I accidentally shifted into the small ring. You can imagine how that felt... Of course I tried desperately to shift up again. But try doing that with no feeling in your fingers. And we even have the advantage of an electronic shift, where you just have to push a button. But I couldn’t find it quickly. Eventually I did, but by then it was too late.

It was funny today, when Michael Matthews came up to me during the race and said: "I purposely had myself delivered to your rear wheel and then you shifted on to the small ring." Oh well, tomorrow is the time trial and then I will concentrate on the next opportunity. At any rate my form is right.

Photos: roth-foto.de