Andreas Kron eyes world's best and Tour de France stage win - "I hoped for more"

Andreas Kron has developed himself as one of the world's best pure puncheurs, and today at the Tour de France he showed his true abilities, by coming home fourth only behind a luxurious podium containing Wout van Aert, Michael Matthews and Tadej Pogacar.

“Of course I hoped for more, but to be up there in the sprint is a good sign and shows that the legs are good, which gives me confidence for the next stages," Kron said in a post-race interview, slightly disappointed despite his strong result. "My Tour de France has now really started."

"...Even Caleb Ewan did his share of the work to get me and Philippe Gilbert at the front. On the climb itself it was just about following and when the sprint started, it suddenly opened up on the right. I came onto the wheel of Matthews but didn’t have the speed to pass him," Kron described.

“To have a rider like Caleb Ewan doing the lead-out for you, really shows how good the atmosphere is in the team. We worked hard for Caleb but partly due to bad luck we didn’t manage to get a win so far. It is really nice that he now works for me. This top five spot is a good sign and hopefully we are on the good way now. If we continue working like this, there are definitely some nice things to come," Kron concluded. He'll be eyeing the punchy stages ahead, and the Lotto Soudal rider is showing form to fight for the wins.