Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) took three wins in the Giro d'Italia (Image credit: Bettini Photo)
André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) sprinted to his third victory of this Giro d'Italia on the ultra-flat stage 12 from Noale to Bibione, which featured a highly technical finishing circuit. We've grabbed the instant reactions from the key protagonists.
"It was already quite strong of the team to keep me there at the front and still be there for the leadout. It was amazing to follow the wheels of my teammates today. The plan was Jurgen Roelandts would hit the last corner first, and leave a little bit of a gap and then I could accelerate in his slipstream. It worked out really good. I wanted to do the sprint from the corner and I'm happy that it worked out like that.
[On leaving the Giro d'Italia] "My season is full of goals and of course I'm not happy to pull out of the Giro with the red jersey. I'm a human being, not a machine. My season is full of goals, up until October and I need to recover from this – it has been mentally and physically a hard 12 days."
Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto Souda), Greipel's leadout man
"It was very hectic. We'd agreed before that Tim Wellens and Lars Bak should ride a duo TT, I would say. I had Andre in front of me so he was a bit sheltered. In the last four kilometres, I came in front of him with Sean de Bie and we did a nice pull and it was a test to go on the front today because with all the turns it wasn't the easiest.
"It makes a bit of difference because we didn't see the GC guys there in the last lap - it was just the sprinters."
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"It was ok for the GC riders but what about the sprinters? It's always dangerous. Maybe we should be planning some easier or safer finishes. Most bends are ok but maybe some wider roads."
[On Friday's stage 13] "I think that it will be a really tough stage. At the moment, I don't really know where I am compared to the others in the really high climbs. I have showed that my shape is great but tomorrow will be the first test in the really high mountains and we will see what is going to happen."
"Tomorrow's a stage with four GPM climbs. I'll see if I can get to there but I'll try to fly under the radar a bit.
"I'm not sure about the specifics of each downhill, I know that they are really difficult and the climbs will be hard as well. I'm going to have to be really attentive and be very careful in thinking about the route and the race."
