"I wanted to force a sprint because I knew I was the fastest in my group" - Patrick Konrad surprises to eighth at Liège-Bastogne-Liège

Patrick Konrad has in the past performed well in the hilly races but struggled through 2022 and this spring too. However he bounced back to perform strongly at Liège-Bastogne-Liège where he finished inside the Top10.

"I found out this morning that today would be my 7th participation in this race. I really like this race and we also had better weather conditions than expected. At the beginning my legs were not super fresh after the Tour of the Alps but during the day it got better and better," Konrad explained. With no results indicating he'd be up there with the best and the presence of Sergio Higuita and Aleksandr Vlasov nothing hinted that the Austrian would be fighting for the Top10, but he proved that notion wrong.

"First we wanted to ride for Aleks (Aleksandr Vlasov, ed.) but then he crashed before the final and I was then alone in the bigger group," Konrad explained. He had spent time in the head of the chasing group clearly on a good day, but then found himself as BORA - hansgrohe's sole option. Having survived the many attacks in the climbs through the final hour of racing, he had the possibility of finishing in the Top10.

"I wanted to force a sprint because I knew I was the fastest in my group," he said. Sure enough Konrad had the legs on the day, and sprinted to an eighth place across the finish line in Liège. "In the end I was happy to take a top 10 finish in this Monument, I think it's quite a nice result."