Wellens uses experience to seal victory, while Pidcock lacks it: “I made a mistake”

With Jan Christen (3rd), Benoît Cosnefroy (4th) and Igor Arrieta (8th), UAE still placed three more riders in the top ten. The Swiss rider Christen was later disqualified after an irregular sprint, but it did nothing to diminish the strength of the team performance. “The tactic was clear: we came here with a very strong team,” Wellens said in the flash interview. “We had to use that, and we always wanted someone up the road so the teammates behind could stay calm.”

Wellens went clear early and found himself alone with Mark Donovan (Pinarello–Q36.5 Pro Cycling). With 55 kilometres to go, the Belgian rode away on his own. “I went quite early, but I had good legs. I had to go pretty deep to drop Mr Donovan, but in the end I could hold my tempo. They came pretty close, but I could keep the watts and I had a good feeling,” he explained.

Donovan seemed to put Wellens under pressure, but the experienced all-rounder refused to panic as the Brit eventually imploded and played no further role in the fight for the win. “I knew it was still far from the finish, so I couldn’t go full gas. I was happy he attacked, because he suffered from it.”

It very nearly went wrong for Wellens, who somehow managed to avoid crashing. “In my head I’d already activated my muscles to anticipate the crash, because I really thought I was going down. I was very lucky I could stay upright, because I truly thought I was going to hit the deck.”

Tom Pidcock rode a strong race and finished second, but for much of the day he was effectively chasing from behind. “It went wrong when I missed the move at the start. Honestly, I thought my race was over. But Soudal Quick-Step made the gap small enough that I could jump back across. We were back in the race, but Tim had already gone. My team was super strong today, but Tim was stronger.”

Despite missing out on the win, the British star believes he can look ahead with confidence to the truly important races. “It’s not bad. I made a mistake, but my team was strong and I’m happy about that. I felt OK, but the days in Murcia weren’t ideal with the stage being cancelled and all the travelling. It’s nice to have a good race in the legs ahead of Ruta del Sol.”