Laurent Pichon: "We have tried"
9th of the 2nd stage of the Tour of Luxembourg, Nairo Quintana is now 7th in the provisional overall classification of this race, fourteen seconds behind the podium.
On the line
“It was decided this morning in the briefing that the pace of the race should be increased on the penultimate climb. This is what we did collectively. Romain and I did it by giving what we could, which contributed to tiring Nairo’s opponents a bit. We responded to the instructions, we tried. That tired some of his opponents and on the last climb we can see that he was still in a good position with Elie. We can see that the team is trying, Nairo is in ambush and if he does a good time trial, we can hope for a good overall classification from him in this Tour of Luxembourg”.
The debrief
“We don’t regret the work done by the team during the whole stage. I think that everyone did his job, Nairo did his until he took Marc Hirshi’s wheel and then he missed a bit. I think that this is the proof that the competition today is important, the days of the races, the efforts made during them, the training blocks are important, but the competition is the most important. I am confident that he can do a good time, we are not going to let go of anything, we are only at the second stage, there are three more to go, and the race is far from over”.