Warren Barguil: "I'm not going to give up anything”
11th at the top of the Alpine Village in Målselv is tonight 9th in the provisional overall classification of the Arctic Race of Norway.
Photo GettyImages
On the line
“It was the most difficult stage of the Arctic Race of Norway on paper, but with very little change in altitude, so it was a hill climb on the ascent to Målselv, which is not necessarily what I am good at. The Arkéa-Samsic team did a superb job. I am just from a physical point of view following my crash in the Tour de France but that is not the excuse and I don’t want to put that forward. I have to be in a position to race like on the first day but I just didn’t have the legs today. I’m going through a bit of a rough patch because I’m not where I want to be. I need to work even harder for the end of the season because 2021 is far from over. There is still a stage tomorrow that is not easy, even a little bit harder than today: I am not going to give up anything”.
The debrief
“We’ll do the assessment of this race tomorrow evening because there is still one stage to go and nobody knows in advance how it will turn out. The first one to be disappointed tonight is Warren of course, but that’s sport and its hazards. The team did what was asked of them and the guys played their part perfectly. Warren was there on the final climb but unfortunately he didn’t have the legs to keep up with the best today”.