"I was not thinking to go in the break today because I had two difficult days. This morning I was just thinking, 'I have to go to the finish line'. But at the beginning the legs were OK, I just tried one time to follow Cattaneo and the legs were going well. At that moment, I said it would be difficult to go to the finish but step-by-step it went OK. I was eating the right way, drinking the right way, and at the end I was confident in myself. It was an amazing finale.
"Cattaneo was not giving me any change anymore [in the closing kilometres]. I was keeping going on my pace to not let them come through. I said, 'OK, I do my best in the sprint' and it was OK. It's something amazing - something I've been dreaming of all my life."
"You know in cycling there is only one winner, and he got the best of me - it's as simple as that.
"It's the third day in a row that I've been in the breakaway, and we made it to the finish, so I have to remember that. It was too much to ask. It was too much to ask. In the end I just couldn't help out. We had to collaborate a lot. There was no way I could go on the climb, which could have helped me. We just had to work together, then I went full gas until the final climb. I tried to go as fast as I could, but the last 500 metres I tried again but there was nothing. When it comes to a sprint, he was always going to be the favourite, so congratulations to him."
