"Motivational speech" from Pedersen was much needed after Ciccone’s dramatic withdrawal: "He really wanted to attack"

“It’s still a very special memory, but you also move on quickly. It remains something very special, but the Giro keeps going and the next day you’re back to suffering.”

“Unfortunately, six out of our seven guys were involved in that crash. I’m doing okay overall, although I was still feeling it quite a bit. I had a good treatment from the osteopath on the rest day and then got a massage, so I don’t think it’ll cause any further problems.”

“Mostly some scrapes and bruises, because your body really takes a hit in a crash like that. But it was never so bad that I felt like I couldn’t continue or anything like that.”

“Yes, he came to our hotel that same evening and we had dinner together. It was a real blow, because the whole team was riding for the GC with Giulio’s. I had done work for that as well and had expectations, so when that suddenly disappears, it’s a huge disappointment. Luckily, Mads gave a kind of motivational speech at the dinner table for Cicco and the rest of the team. That already paid off on Sunday with Carlos’s stage win.”

"Yeah, yeah... Really everything seems to be working out.'

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“He really wanted to go on the attack and take time in the stages that suited him, maybe even earlier than expected. He had marked a few stages for that, especially since the GC contenders haven’t really had a lot of opportunities to go all out yet. There were very few stages where they could really test themselves, which made it even more frustrating that Giulio had to abandon. He was in the best shape of his life and never really got the chance to show how strong he was. That’s incredibly frustrating for him.”

“That’s true, but Carlos is riding at a really high level, we saw that on Sunday. He didn’t win from the break, you know, he went over Monte Grappa with the GC guys. There were maybe twelve riders left at that point, so that shows he’s up there with the best. Together with Patrick Konrad, he still has chances in the coming days. On Thursday, we have another nice stage for Mads to try to win, so there are definitely plenty of plans. My job will be to help get those guys into the breakaway and support them as best I can.”

“He’s doing well, his crash wasn’t that bad. He didn’t really go down and even thought he could avoid it. But at the last second someone ran into the back of him. Luckily, he didn’t suffer much damage from that.”

“Yeah, and finishing this week strong now that we’re riding so well as a team. And I’d still really like to be in a breakaway one more time.”

Bram van der Ploeg (Twitter: @BvdPloegg | email: [email protected])