A tough final result to swallow, but I gave 100%. One of those days where @LeTour crushes your emotions. An old man crying like a baby. Congratulations to @VCampenaerts ✌️
"I thought I was smart during the stage, but he was even smarter" - Michal Kwiatkowski surrenders to Victor Campenaerts in Barcelonnette
CyclingFriday, 19 July 2024 at 05:30
With two stage victories under his belt, it doesn't come as a surprise that Michal Kwiatkowski had already his sights on the possibility of adding number three to his collection on eighteenth stage of the Tour de France. And for a long time, it seemed like everything plays into his hands, especially when a group of just three steered clear. Many experts considered the Pole from INEOS Grenadiers the most suited for such a sprint but surprisingly, not only Victor Campenaerts, but also the young Mattéo Vercher had more in their legs in Barcelonnette.
"I was really aiming for this stage. It's a shame that we couldn't finish the job in the last 200 meters," said a dejected Kwiatkowski in an interview on his team's X account. "But that's cycling, it's cruel, it's hard to swallow. I'm still proud of the way we rode today and yesterday."
"On this Tour there weren't many opportunities for us, it was very polarized, with either sprint stages or for the general classification. We gave it our all, that's for sure and it's a shame that there aren't as many stages like that. There are still two tough stages to come, so we're not going to give up."
"Congratulations to Victor. I thought I was smart during the stage, but he was even smarter. He followed me from kilometer 0 and he knew what to do, especially in the sprint. But I was also happy to have him with me in the last 30 kilometers, otherwise it would have been difficult to maintain the lead over the pursuers," he concluded.
Read also
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- Why do the women CXs keep getting short changed with the length of theor races? They could have easily done another lap to put them at 50 minutes which is their time limit. Yet another CX race where they fail to reach this when they had a chance to. Come on ... the math isn't that hard to figure out lap times and divide into 50 min!frieders318-11-2024
- All pro cyclists are massively underpaid! The amount of riding and physical exertion they put their bodies through is crazy compared to other sports. I can't think of any other sport where you are physically active at a very high level of power output for hours on end each day.Pogboom17-11-2024
- When I was working for Starkist/Heinz my manager quit. So the next week my group was put under another manager. During our first meeting he asked if there was anything we needed to tell him. I said that I would be out the following week on vacation. He said "I don't know if I can let you go on vacation". I replied, "You can't tell if I can go. You can only tell me if I can come back".Sweep17-11-2024
- :-)Sweep17-11-2024
- What a mess there :-)
DareDevil17-11-2024 - So he read the comments here probably :-)DareDevil17-11-2024
- Alpecin is a MVDP and sprinter's team. It is unlikely that he will get a chance there as wellabstractengineer17-11-2024
- There’s no crying in cyclocross…Crashjames17-11-2024
- Pointless reporting. They are rivals, each tries their way to get their best result, with or without collaboration. As long as it’s all fair, why even report riders feelings about such stuff (yes I know, lack of other news). Anyone riding races will go through dozens of moments per race where they get emotional about the way someone else rides or takes advantage or doesn’t collaborate or more, it is natural, it is justified, it is NOT newsworthy!Mistermaumau17-11-2024
- I like that you can see you actually replied to you and not just to the same thread. :)Sweep16-11-2024