Sports director Marc Reef: "At the final intermediate sprint we wanted to be sharp, because there were still seconds to be gained for the general classification," he explained. "The team got Sepp into position which allowed him to compete. Unfortunately, he lost the sprint to Wout Poels, which now drops him to eighth place. But I think it can still go either way in the coming days, so this sprint is definitely not going to be the deciding factor."
"Tomorrow's stage is normally going to be a stage for the attackers," Reef continued. "We didn't have to waste much energy today. For us, the most important thing on Friday is to get Sepp and Cian back across the finish line well and in one piece."