Thomas de Gendt: "Ten years after the Stelvio stage, I finally win another stage in the Giro"

Thomas de Gendt has resurfaced to take a strong stage win at today's stage of the Giro d'Italia, his first of the season and in a period of his career where he has less freedom than in his prime years. However, a mix of perfect timing and strong legs earned him his fifth ever Grand Tour win today.

"If you had asked me two weeks ago if I could win a stage in the Giro, I would have said no, because I was in such bad shape," the Belgian said in a post-race interview. De Gendt had been working for Caleb Ewan in the opening days, and had specifically that today was "a day I would have aimed for, but now obviously we have Caleb here. So for now I have to bring back the breaks." However that didn't come to be, as the early attacks on the day made it evident that a sprint would not be taking place in Napoli, and Lotto Soudal got in the 21-rider group with Harm Vanhoucke and Sylvain Moniquet besides the stage winner.

"But now the good legs are back. With such a large group and very strong riders such as Mathieu van der Poel, Diego Ulissi and Biniam Girmay, they are watched a lot. Van der Poel attacked on a steep part, in the second to last lap. He went really fast, we got off with all three teammates, but we came back," he added. The 35-year old is an expert on the matter of breakaways, and today he timed his move perfectly, attacking after Mathieu van der Poel had stirred the group with just over 45 kilometers to go. "Then we attacked to try. We knew that everyone would look to Van der Poel and Girmay to close it," de Gendt pointed out, in what proved a decisive move.

Alongside teammate Harm Vanhoucke, Davide Gabburo and Jorge Arcas, he rode a consistent pace throughout the final hour of racing that prevented anyone from coming back to the front of the race. "We took a little lead. We hoped we would make it over the steep climb and then they would catch up with us, but they got stuck at thirty seconds," he added.

He explained how Lotto Soudal have came up with the winning stategy of gearing up towards the final sprint: "I was working for Harm so he could attack on the climb, but he said he didn't have the best legs anymore. So in the last three kilometers I told him to lead the way because I was sure I would win the sprint. He did it perfectly. He was in the lead until 300 meters before the end, so I have to say a big thank you to Harm. We did a good job as a team today."

"Today was one of those days that suits me. It is a bit like the Barcelona stage that is always in the Volta a Catalunya. Constantly up and down making it difficult to recover and close the gap. Ten years after the Stelvio stage, I finally win another stage in the Giro," he concluded.