Of course I am disappointed that I didn’t win today. But I had to ride the sprint the way I did. I was already in the wind at the 300 meter marker, otherwise the others would have boxed me in. Cavendish had an explosive acceleration with his track legs, but of course also the luck to have been so long on Sagan’s wheel.I think that if we had ridden the same sprint, I could possibly have won. But it was as it was. And congratulations to Cav!

This opening stage makes me optimistic at any rate, because no one who was on my rear wheel came past me from behind, although it was such a long sprint. We will now analyze things a bit, what we can do better, and then I will hope for the next days. Until then.

Photo: roth-foto.de