I lost the yellow today, but I still have the sprint jersey. And I will do everything to wear in until Krakow. They called for 2000 meters of climbing but it was more like 2500. My legs felt good, but in the end weren’t good enough to keep up the tempo on the climbs. At one point we thought we might catch up with the field again, but then weren’t able to. Nevertheless I am pretty satisfied. This is exactly the kind of hard race I need to put the final touch on my form. And I can tell you, I really went all out today.

In the finale, Luka took over my role in the sprint of the field, where he was second, and fifth on the stage, since the breakaway group stayed away to the end. But as I said, as leader of the sprint ranking I still wear one of the special jerseys and am very satisfied with that. When you consider how long I was out of action, I can be very happy with my interim results to date in this race with one win, three days in yellow and the sprint jersey.

Photo: roth-foto.de