Despite having a bad day in the worst possible moment and struggling right from the start to the finish line, classics specialist Sep Vanmarcke managed to overcome his weakness and finished yesterday’s stage in the grupetto, 27:40 behind a winner Rafał Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo).

“This was the worst day to have a bad day and that’s exactly what happened to me,” Vanmarcke said according to Sporza.be,  “At the neutral start I felt that it kicked off too fast and I had a big problem.”

“Navardauskas was happy we could stay together even though we didn’t have team mates. We managed to rejoin the last grupetto together and we just needed to hang on. I was hoping I’m still improving, but alas. My second week is always the worst apparently.”