Israel - Premier Tech's Simon Clarke came so close to a first Giro d'Italia stage win that would have completed his set of Grand Tour victories before heartbreakingly being caught with just 200m to go.
"It's not fun to lose like this, to get caught so close to the line," a visibly gutted Clarke revealed in a post-stage interview to Eurosport. “I would rather have been taken back with ten kilometers to go than two hundred meters from the end. But you can't always win. And if you don't try, you never know. Tomorrow is another day.”
Alongside his former teammate Alessandro De Marchi, the leading duo began to play cat and mouse with each other and checking behind them to see where the peloton was with the finish line in sight. So does Clarke have any regrets? “In the end there is always a point where you have to decide not to drive anymore,” says Clarke understandingly. “You cannot not ride until ten meters before the line. We needed ten, fifteen seconds more. But that's just the way it is.”
Mads Pedersen was the eventual stage winner and for Clarke now the attention turns to future stages. “I keep working hard, even work a little harder every year. I don't sit at home and think about my age. Honestly, I'm working harder than ever. That allows me to still shake something like today.”
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