Aurélien Paret-Peintre: “A perfect way to close out the team’s great week”
“I knew I was one of the fastest riders in the group. I caught the right wave at the right moment, then launched the sprint at 200 metres. I saw straight away that I was the strongest, so I didn’t look back until the line. I’m happy to win here and it’s a perfect way to close out the team’s great week, with Ben (O’Connor) also finishing second overall. We’ve got a lot of things right this week, and it validates the work we did during the Etna training camp. We’re a good group and everyone’s working well together. We’re going to keep up the momentum and hope to bring home some wins at the Giro.”
Ben O’Connor: “I’m proud of everyone”
“We can be very satisfied to have led the race, to have been aggressive, and to have likely had the strongest team in today’s race, so I’m proud of everyone. Aurélien’s victory was really cool, he worked hard for me and then he took his chance as well, so huge credits to him. Now I’m going to look after myself these next two weeks, absorb all the work that we’ve been doing and go to the Giro with ambition.”
Key figure: 2
Like the number of riders from the DECATHLON AG2R LA MONDIALE Team who finished in the top 5 of the stage (victory for Aurélien Paret-Peintre, his brother Valentin third) and in the overall classification (Ben O’Connor second and Valentin Paret-Peintre fourth).
