Rune Herregodts: "When I felt it was possible I just gathered all my sprint"

The Sport Vlaanderen - Baloise rider has gathered the biggest win of his career today at the Vuelta Andalucia, getting the race lead alongside it. Rune Herregodts has fulfilled and surpassed his goals at the the race, he was emotional after the finish line upon such success.

"It was a difficult day to go away because it was two hundred kilometers. That was quite a long stage, we went away with eigth guys so it's a large group it's ideal. I didn't went too hard at the start, the peloton gave good margin," he said in a post-race interview.

"I told the guys to take it easy. With 100 kilometers to go go all-out, we're eigth guys if they want to chase us down they have to put a lot of riders in the front of the peloton. Cooperation was great, no-one skipped turns."

Herregodts was part of the first breakaway of the race and was the most agressive rider in the penultimate climb. Despite a flurry of unsuccessful moves, the young Belgian managed to climb the final hilltop faster than his breakaway companions to take a very big win.

He added, "on the last climb everbody tried to go alone, we were quite equal so we couldn't distance each other. When I felt it was possible I just gathered all my sprint because I know after a hard day I can ride quite well. My teammate Lindsay de Vylder did a fantastic job, he kept everything together on the flat parts, it as great to be with two teammates in the break we tried to keep the pace high when sometimes when it went down, it really was a team effort.

"It's a very important victory, it's a pro race with quite a strong field. Everybody will be very happy." Asked about his GC ambitions, he replied, "I won't think about it now, I want to enjoy. I didn't come here with the ambition for the GC. We'll try to hold the jersey as long as possible, but our stage-race is already a great success, and everything that comes is bonus."

Tomorrow will already be a very complicated challenge for Herregodts to keep the race lead, but he has 31 seconds of lead over what should be his most direct rival Alessandro Covi.