Patrick Bevin: "I had been looking forward to this stage all week"

Patrick Bevin has won stage three of the Tour de Romandie this afternoon, after surviving the climbs in this hilly stage and then sprinting towards the win, beating Ethan Hayter and Rohan Dennis to grab Israel - Premier Tech's first World Tour win of the year.

“I had been looking forward to this stage all week, I knew it was going to be a difficult final with going up and down all the time," Bevin said in a post-race interview. After the disappointment after yesterday's stage, the Israel - Premier Tech rider bounced back to take a sprint win today. "I had the legs to sit by today. The team also made sure that I was in a good position on the tricky parts on the last climb. I knew that if I could survive there, I would sprint for the win," he added.

Sure enough that was the case, as the flurry of attack in the final climb led to nothing as the GC riders blocked themselves, and a still fairly large peloton quickly headed towards the finish, with Bevin well positioned towards the sprint. “I knew beforehand that I wanted to get through the last corner in third. It often doesn't go well with such difficult sprint arrivals, but today it did," Bevin said.

After his recent success at the Tour de Romandie, this win came as another important one for the team and for Bevin himself who has spent almost two months out of competition earlier in the year due to injuries sustained at the Tour de la Provence. “It was nice to win there, but it's not Romandie. This is a WorldTour win, this is great. I also beat Ethan [Hayter] here, who is really on top form. So it is definitely a big win," he concluded.