Late crash takes out Peron’s chances on stage 4 in Croatia

Sports director Gennady Mikhaylov:

“Another top 20 today with Andrea and we are certainly consistent in that regard, but we were aiming higher and for the work we put in we deserved more. You can’t do anything about the crash, it happened right in front of him and he did well to stay upright.”

“The guys were positioned much better today, and this morning’s team talk obviously had some effect, but our first target was to get in the breakaway and we didn’t.”

“That needs addressing. Today was a perfect opportunity and we tried to make it into the early move, then stopped. As we stopped the right move went and we weren’t there, and we need to work on that. You should be going three or four times, all our guys apart from Andrea as the sprinter, trying to get an attack going, but we didn’t try hard enough, and we will speak about that.”

Andrea Peron:

“Man. I can’t believe it. That was the best position I’ve been in for maybe the last two seasons. I was top ten inside the last km and the third wheel went down in front of me and I had to start from scratch. I couldn’t do anything about it, and I was so frustrated when we crossed the line.”

“I want more than top 20, and we want more than that as a team. We worked better today as a unit and we were together until deeper into the stage, but we only have two more opportunities left in 2021 – tomorrow and Sunday. It’s going to be hard, especially tomorrow with the climb, but we will try to get a top ten finish before this race and our season is over.”