Alaphilippe on bold Gulperberg move: "I went with my gut and have no regrets"

He told Cycling Pro after the finish. In the end, the two-time world champion finished 3.36 minutes behind winner Mattias Skjelmose. "I'm satisfied because I have no regrets," he began. "I went with my gut and mainly wanted to anticipate Tadej. But he also anticipated himself, so it was difficult for me." After Alaphilippe's acceleration, Pogacar started a solo attack on the Kruisberg, but it ended 8 kilometers from the finish. Afterward, the Slovenian has to laugh a little at the Frenchman's effort.

He mainly wanted to race aggressively. "I felt good, and as I said this morning, I don't want any regrets. So I think it was a good moment. After that, I needed a little time to recover, so I lacked that little extra to follow the right group. It is what it is." For a moment, he thought he could follow the world champion to the finish. "I thought it was possible if I had time to recover. But he didn't need any recovery time, unlike me. The chasers caught up very quickly. After that, it became very difficult for me."

But the classics specialist entered the bus with his head held high, especially with the rest of the Ardennes races. "I'm happy because I felt that things went well over the past few days and that I had recovered well from the Tour of the Basque Country. I have no regrets; I hope that the next two races will go a little better. We'll see." Alaphilippe will be at the start of the Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday, a race he has won three times. Next Sunday, he will return to Liège-Bastogne-Liège, where he once saw victory slip through his fingers as world champion when he celebrated too early: Primoz Roglic won that day, and Alaphilippe was later disqualified.