Giro d'Italia stage 12 reactions: Simon Yates, Miguel Angel Lopez, Mikel Landa, Bauke Mollema
May 24 2019 05:43 am CET
Never ending trophy. (c)Giro d'Italia
The first mountain stage of the 2019 Giro d'Italia is done and dusted but it showed the kind of action that was expected from the race. Some of the race favourites like Simon Yates, Miguel Angel Lopez, Mikel Landa and Bauke Mollema shared their impressions of the day.
Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott)
"It was a warm day out there, hotter than I was expecting. A few guys showed that they’ve got great legs, but other than that I think we showed that we are one of the strongest teams. We had three guys at the front and Mikel (Nieve) wasn’t that far behind also, so things are looking good for the rest of the week. Tomorrow is going to be another aggressive start, a fast start. I think we can expect more of the same."
Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana)
"We planned this attack. I felt quite good and the team worked really well, preparing my attack. But, of course, we had bad luck when I got a flat tire with just 5 km to the bottom of the climb. My teammates did their best to bring me back to the group at the right moment. On the climb, I went away with Landa and we worked pretty well together. Later, I’ve got big help from Manuele Boaro and Dario Cataldo. I want to thank them and also the whole team for today."
Mikel Landa (Movistar)
"I’m so happy. It was important for me to see myself doing strong in the first big mountain of this race. Taking some time back, even if it wasn’t a lot, and finding these legs is so great for me. Halfway through the climb, seeing that riders like Miguel Ángel trying to move across to the break and the speed was decreasing in my group, I decided to take advantage and launch an attack to get to him. We had Jasha into the break, and I tried to profit from his situation to keep that gap high before the end. We might have a strong favourite in Roglic, with a big gap ahead of us, plus riders like Nibali, who knows this race well and is in optimal form, yet we won’t stop trying. The race should still remain quite open this weekend, it will also be hard to control, and we’ll try to take advantage and make it enjoyable for the fans."
Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo)
"When they started to attack I couldn't follow the accelerations. I asked Giulio to make a regular tempo and that was better for me. We lost 10-20 seconds in the last kilometre when they attacked again. Luckily Giulio was with me and he did a really good job. We chased in the downhill and last flat part and came back. I felt a little better on the last steep cobbled climb with 3kms to go. In the end, I didn't lose time, and it was a pretty good day."
SUBSCRIBE TO RSS FEEDSSIMON YATES
MIGUEL ANGEL LOPEZ MORENO
MIKEL LANDA MEANA
BAUKE MOLLEMA
GIRO D'ITALIA
