Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike): “Even this morning, I was not interested in [the KOM jersey]. But then I saw Kaden Groves going in an early breakaway. He’s still an opponent for the green jersey, so I decided to make the jump. Once I found myself in the breakaway, I knew it would be a hard day anyway, so I thought it was better to try and grab everything there was on the road! Sometimes, in the Tour I was also close to being leader in the polka-dot jersey, and I actually kind of regret that I never really tried it. So today was a good day to go for it, and I’m really proud to wear it. To be honest, I never believed that [the stage win] was possible. Especially with riders like Vine, McNulty or Woods in the front group, I knew they were way better on the steep uphill finish. Also, I was too much focused on all the intermediate points on the road, where I wasted too much energy to compete on the final climb. As long as there’s gradients below 6-7%, I can climb quite well. But when it’s steep, then I have no chance. Tomorrow is a good stage where we will definitely try to survive the climbs. Let’s see if that is possible.”
