"You had to be in the top 10 in the last corner and that didn’t work" - Dylan Groenewegen settles for a top 10 in Saint-Amand-Montrond

Dylan Groenewegen was not involved in the sprint for victory in Saint-Amand-Montrond. The technical run-in to the finish cost many favourites a good position and the Dutch champion simply found himself too far off the front after the last turn. Ninth on the day was a maximum while Jasper Philipsen managed to finally break the bad luck and take his first Tour de France stage victory of this year.

What exactly went wrong for Groenewegen? "We almost fell at 2.5 kilometres. We stayed together well and came back to the front on the right. That cost some energy, but I still got into a good position. In the last corner I had to brake again and then I didn't get into position anymore. Then it's over, especially when there is a team that does a good lead-out like Alpecin-Deceuninck. Then the pace stays up and you don't come back from behind," he told WielerFlits after the stage.

Still, Groenewegen wants to praise his teammates at Jayco AlUla. "Today we stayed together one of the better times. You had to be in the top 10 in the corner and that didn’t work. That was necessary today, preferably even further up, but I let that slide. Corners can make a sprint very easy if you’re in position, then it’s very easy to sprint. If you’re not there, it’s frustrating because you can’t really straighten things out."

Otherwise a rather boring day out, according to Groenewegen. "There was a lot of stress about the wind, but there actually wasn't much wind. That's a bit annoying, because you have to be there. You actually want to save energy. At the end of the day, this is a missed opportunity. We know that we can beat them and we keep going for it. We want to add one more."