"A pothole caused my saddle to drop a bit in the final lap, but luckily it didn't matter" - Alexandr Kristoff sprints to a second place in Trofeo Palma
Cycling
A chaotic finish of Trofeo Ses Salines - Felanitx on Thursday left many top sprinters hungry for a result, setting their sights on Trofeo Palma. That was also the case for Alexander Kristoff, who was motivated to improve his tenth place on Sunday. In a much more predictable sprint, only his former teammate Gerben Thijssen was faster.
"I know Gerben is really fast," he begins the interview for Eurosport after the race. "I was beaten by a faster guy, but my teammates did an incredible job and put me in the right wheel. I was not the fastest, but second place is also good. We will take the good feeling with us and we have something to build on."
Kristoff then describes the final kilometers. "It was a bit hectic and there were also quite a few potholes on the road. One of them caused my saddle to drop a bit in the final lap, but luckily it didn't matter as much. I don't think it was what made the difference today."
"I was teammates with Gerben two years ago and he was faster than me back then and he's faster than me now, so there was not much that could've been done about him today. At least I was the best of the rest," he concludes.
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- yeah, that’s a more fair assessment. “reaching mathieu’s level” doesn’t mean you’re planning to replicate his whole career. the former IS doable, potentially. it’s just the latter that likely is not.OCexile25-12-2024
- That’s not entirely true. Every person follows their own development path and peaks differently. Remco and Primoz had hardly started cycling before elite level. Jonas was pretty much under the radzr until he unexpectedly had to take over responsibility at JV. Some guys only get real good in their thirties others have peaked mid-twenties. You can’t tell in advance how and upto what level they will progress, obviously his career might not have MVDPs length but nothing says he could not end up doing a few seasons at his level.Mistermaumau25-12-2024
- well, del grosso is 21 right now. when mathieu was a year younger than that, he was already winning elite level world championships, not U23. i think del grosso will be a very good pro for years, but if he was really going to be the next van der poel someday, he’d already have to be at that level right NOW. van der poel was showing signs of true greatness when he was 15-16. THAT’S what generational talent looks like.OCexile25-12-2024
- Yeah.... gear 😅.mikolajjj24-12-2024
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- Ok, happy I’m not too interested in this team coz’ the account of what happened is really hard to follow.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- The UCI is worse than USA CyclingVeganpotter24-12-2024
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- Bruyneel ? The man with a lifetime ban from cycling...why do you keep giving him and his doper mate, Armstrong, a platform?DJ24-12-2024
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