Milan Menten had the expectation of winning in Oliva on Friday but had to watch Geoffrey Soupe take the stage victory in the Vuelta a España. The Lotto Dstny team sprinter chose to follow Filippo Ganna’s wheel in the final kilometer but later regretted his choice. “Unfortunately, he went through the corner (turn in Portugal) like an elderly cyclist,” Menten recalls.
“Three hundred meters before the last corner, I was really in the ideal position,” Menten told Het Nieuwsblad. “But then I saw Ganna to my right. I went for his wheel, thinking it would work. Unfortunately, he went through the corner like an old man, really hitting the brakes. Everyone passed on the left, and the sprint was over.”
The sprint preparation was very chaotic. The crash at five kilometers was an example of this, and Menten was in the middle of the chaos. “The cyclists are just dangerous. Everyone is crazy. INEOS Grenadiers, Jumbo-Visma… So I wonder why? These general classification men make it even more dangerous. At 3 kilometers from the finish, they stop pedaling and let the peloton pass.”