Yesterday a mechanical ruined Tom-Jelte Slagter's hopes of an overall victory in Paris-Nice but today he took his revenge when he won the penultimate stage of the race. With two stage wins in his pocket, the Dutchman has firmly put yesterday's frustration behind him and describes the second win as even better than the first one.

Tom-Jelte Slagter looked like a potential winner of Paris-Nice when he attacked on the steep climb to Fayence in yesterday's queen stage. The Dutchman was leading the race in the final hairpin bends and all way looking bright for the winner of stage four.

In the final hairpind bend, he suddenly came to a standstill as a mechanical had taken him out of contention. As it was an uphill finish, there was no 3km rule, meaning that he lost more than a minute and all hopes of an overall victory.

Today he took the perfect revenge when he powered clear of Rui Costa and Carlos Betancur to win the uphill sprint in the penultimate stage of the race.

"I can't believe it. Today is maybe even better. Like yesterday I lost everything that I had. I was happy I had the victory, but to win again today is the best feeling ever," he said at the finish. "It's incredible. I've never ridden here before. The stages suit me really good and I like the racing here. 

"That [yesterday's bad luck] was really hard. I could have done a result, maybe top 5 in the GC maybe and that all disappeared. So today, everything is ok again.

"In the stage to Fayence, everything was going well until three kilometers from the finish when a rider [Wilco Kelderman] touched my rear wheel. I sensed that something was not working as it should. It made a strange noise. But I saw that I could continue, so I continued like that. It held up to three hundred meters. When I wanted to start my sprint, it was over. Obviously, it is very frustrating, it's a big disappointment. This is something that has never happened to me before.

"It would have been really great to finish at least in the top 3. I think I could have made it.

"After this disappointment, I thought it was over. I had to concentrate on the positive, Wednesday's victory. This morning, it was not easy to get motivated. Then during the first two passages of the finish line, I saw that it was a final that suited me particularly well. So the team protected me excellently at the front. 

"Between five hundred and four hundred meters from the finish, Nibali attacked. I jumped on his wheel. When he stopped, I found myself at the head of the race a little too early. I waited until the riders reached me. In the last roundabout, two hundred meters from the line, I went full gas, and once again, it was enough.

"Yesterday at the start I was feeling really good and I lost everything in the end. It was the best possible revenge to win the stage today. It's definitely a great Paris-Nice for me, not quite a revelation because I won the Tour Down Under last year, but obviously it gives me great morale for the future. It's a little bit like what Andrew (Talansky) did here a year ago. I will now be riding the classics and the Tour of the Basque Country before the Giro, so it's a long and tough schedule."  

Slagter doesn't know what to expect from tomorrow's stage.

"We'll see, I have not looked at the roadbook. I will do that tonight."

You can read our preview of the final stage here. You can follow our live coverage of the stage at 15.15 CET on CyclingQuotes.com/live.