Asgreen thanks EF Education–EasyPost on bended knee, team director: "I saw the night before that he wanted a shot"

Asgreen is a thoughtful, articulate speaker and came up with a nice metaphor in his flash interview. “It was a tough day out there. It’s annoying that you have to destroy yourself completely like this to win races – but yeah, when it works out, it’s all worth it. I’m super, super pleased right now. The team gave me permission and the freedom to go for it today, and I’m super grateful for that,” said the strong rouleur, who has mainly been riding in support of Richard Carapaz during this Giro.

Why did he want that freedom? “I’ve tried it before, and I know once you’re deep into a Grand Tour – even if it’s a flat stage – if you’ve got a group that works well together, you can make it. Everybody’s tired. That’s what made the difference today. The roads were slick, and the course was really technical. It made it hard for the bunch to go faster than us at the front I couldn’t think much in the final. I was completely on the limit. I just tried to take the corners well, especially on the descent.”

For Asgreen, this win is a big boost after missing the spring classics. “After seven years with Quick Step, I got sick, and skipping the spring was a tough decision. That’s why we made the plan to go to this Giro d’Italia, with Richard’s GC ambitions as the main goal. The fact that he was already in the mix on stage one gave the whole team a lot of confidence.”

Team director Juanma Gárate also spoke. “We had that talk last night. Kasper asked, ‘What’s the plan for tomorrow?’ I could tell he wanted the opportunity. I said, ‘Do you want to go for it?’ And he said ‘yes’. From kilometer zero, he went all in. That’s what it takes,” said Gárate, whose team had a fantastic day: GC man Carapaz was one of the few contenders who didn’t lose time. “Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t. But today was a great day.”