"Giulio came to ask at least 10 times" - Visma's Campenaerts reveals Ciccone's relentless pursuit for breakaway freedom

Behind the scenes in a professional cycling race, there are a lot of conversations, arrangements and agreements which never come across to the outside. But sometimes not even those work out. Victor Campenaerts revealed that on stage 9, Giulio Ciccone repeatedly asked to be allowed in the day's breakaway to Visma. But in the end a different team chased them on.

"We thought we were giving it away to the breakaway riders. Controlling the breakaway would have cost a lot of energy, but my good friend Oliver Naesen said pretty quickly 'If you don't do it, we will'," Campenerts said in words to Sporza.

The Decathlon rider had shared with Campenaerts the team's intentions for the day, which included a stage-long chase to provide Felix Gall with the chance to fight for the stage win. Whilst Jonas Vingegaard was second, for the overall classification it was still a very fruitful day for the French team.

"I don't want to give him too much credit, but they did a very good job. And Felix Gall finished second, so I think they are satisfied with that, because other guys lost time."

However not everyone was happy with Decathlon's work. Some were extremely unhappy, such as Giulio Ciccone. The Italian didn't have cooperation and lost his pink jersey on stage 5 after only one day; on stage 8 he wasn't allowed into the winning break and was personally covered by race leader Afonso Eulálio.

On stage 9 he was again heavily covered at the start. "The Decathlon guys kept bringing me back. I wasted a lot of energy there by trying so often." Ciccone eventually went up the road later in the day, but Decathlon's work saw him getting caught just outside the Flamme Rouge.

And this was after plenty conversations he had with Visma riders, to understand if he was allowed or not. "It is a shame for the breakaway riders. Giulio [Ciccone] came to ask at least 10 times if it was okay for us, and it was. Yeah, that's how it goes, Decathlon CMA CGM rode on the flat, we positioned ourselves uphill. But Jonas said: 'Guys, I feel very good.'"

The Dutch team had the best case scenario on the day, extending their lead over their main rivals, winning the stage and climbing to the top of the team's classification whilst not having to do almost any of the work throughout the stage.

This Tuesday's stage 10 will be a key time trial, in which Jonas Vingegaard is expected to take the race lead. "He is super good and we had confidence in that beforehand. Gall is also riding fantastically, but is perhaps a slightly less gifted time trialist."

"We are confident that the time trial will work to our advantage. We are already in a nice second place and are heading into the rest day feeling good."