“It was a joy to watch today’s stage,” Sports Director Frans Maassen said after the 20^th stage of the Giro d’Italia.

“A lot happened and Steven was good in front again. We were pushing as a team at the front of the peloton in the beginning of the stage to make sure that Steven got his chance to pick up some extra points for the mountain classification on the Colle delle Finestre. We knew that he had to become one of the first three riders who reached the top to win the blue jersey. You have to be good enough for that, for sure. He was so close, but just too short.

“The most important thing is of course that he was 40^th after four days and is going to finish seventh overall. The way he fixed it is incredible. He was fighting every day. It’s a seventh place with a silver lining.”

Mountain jersey
With that seventh place, the climber reached his goal. “It was my ambition to finish in the top 10 of the general classification,” he said. “I succeeded in a very beautiful way. I wasn’t able to win a stage, but I grabbed many good results. I’m glad with that. I wasn’t good enough to win the mountain classification, unfortunately. We had to make sure that Visconti and Intxausti were forced behind. That went well, but you know that it’s also a race and the others aren’t thinking about your ambitions to win the mountain jersey. But it was a very good Giro for me. I think that the people in the Netherlands got excited about it. I’m glad that I was responsible for that.”

Combativeness
“We gave everything,” Maassen continued. “We’re very satisfied with this. Maybe Steven will be named as the most combative rider of the tour. He should be close to that prize, but we can’t say anything about that. Besides that, we have a ride to Milan tomorrow. Moreno Hofland can go for his chances in that last stage, maybe. He came through this tour quite well and gets another chance tomorrow.”