Thomas winks following Pogacar's new masterpiece: "I had so many questions, but he's just from another planet"

"I had so many questions," Thomas replied with a smile when asked by Cycling Pro Net and others what he thought when Pogacar made his move 14 kilometers from the finish. "We knew that attack was coming, of course. UAE Team Emirates had been working all day to secure that new stage win. Hats off to them, especially to the guys who really rode their hearts out."

"It wasn't really a bad day for us, with some guys in the early breakaway and also Filippo Ganna who was able to stick with the favorites' group for a long time," continued G, who finished sixth himself. "I must say I didn't feel one hundred percent fit. And that made me not feel too confident. I felt unwell all day. When Tadej went, I just tried to follow the other GC guys as best as I could. Of course, I would have liked to have gone with Tadej. That simply wasn't possible, so I had to ride a bit more conservatively. We had a bit of a cat-and-mouse game going. A battle behind Pogacar."

In the ultimate finale, Thomas could count on great work from Thymen Arensman. "Eventually, I came through it a bit better," said the veteran, who retains a fifteen-second lead over Daniel Felipe Martinez. "It was nice to be able to follow and cross the finish line together with Dani. Pogacar is simply from another planet. Far behind him, I might just be the best of the rest. And that's a nice realization."

After the rest day on Monday — more accurately, on Pentecost Monday — two tough stages follow immediately. "It's now a matter of working towards those as well as possible," says Thomas, who mentions that he is looking forward to the rest day. "No one here comes close to Pogacar, but behind him, things could still get very exciting in the final week. We might just have one more chance at a stage victory, but that's certainly not a certainty."