“We knew that it was going to be difficult to beat the sprinters despite the fact that there were some cobbled sectors on the course. We knew that it was going to be difficult to thwart the plans of the sprinters’ teams despite the cobbled sectors on the course. Christophe came out well in the last sector and that allowed him to be in the mix for the top 10. We don’t have much to regret: we had 4 or 5 of the best sprinters in the world besides us”.