Post-race quotes | Cyclingnews

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Leif Hoste (Discovery)(Image credit: Sirotti)

"Today I was as strong as Boonen," he told Cyclingnews in the finish. "Without shame I can say that. My bad luck was that the wrong man joined me in the break. In my situation, I couldn't allow myself to let them catch us. He was faster than me, that's how he could win. I've been saying for a while now that you should attack if you want to win. The ones who wait are not right - OK, I didn't win, but still...

"Of course, I thought about winning. That's logical when you're up front with two men and have an advantage of almost two minutes at the Muur van Geraardsbergen. Everybody will ask me why I didn't try to shake him off, but on the Muur and the Bosberg I felt that it wasn't possible. Going into the sprint, I got myself in a good position. So, during the last two kilometres, I didn't do any work. We were almost standing still, but what can I do...?

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"I trained a whole winter to be in form for this race. With that knowledge and being in a dream situation in front, you can't let yourself get caught because you can't win in the sprint against Boonen. Next week I'll try again in Paris-Roubaix. This Leif Hoste is even stronger than the one from two years ago. Without bad luck, I'll be there in the finale in Roubaix. The team was not as strong as I thought, but we had bad luck with Barry and Hammond crashing. It also proves that the 3-days of De Panne-Koksijde are not the same as the Tour of Flanders."

"I don't know, I felt really good today," he told Cyclingnews. "I was in a situation where I couldn't do much. The team was second and third so we have to be happy with that. But I had really good legs today and maybe I could've done a little better. Hoste surprised me a little with his jump on the Valkenberg. But that's ok, I'm happy for Leif. He‘s a really good teammate and he always works hard for the team. We wanted to win today but I'm happy with him getting second. I had super good legs but I'm a team player and once a team mate is in the road I just sit back." Hincapie was a little frustrated, however, adding later, "I'm a bit disappointed because we didn't win. Hoste played his card and that's alright. Sadly, my legs felt better than ever but I couldn't show it. In the pursuit, Bettini covered every move the others made. After 260 kilometres, everything is possible. If you look to my sprint, you'll see that I'm a few bike lengths ahead of the others."

The Dutchman almost managed to get into the last break with Boonen and Hoste, as he explained to Cyclingnews at the finish: "I got as close as ten metres, but then Boonen took over from Hoste. I wanted to react earlier, but I was trapped between other riders. I was just too late; otherwise I would at least have a podium place in a race that was extremely hard. I wanted to attack before Hoste did, but the Quick.Step team was very strong. Between the Boigneberg and the Berendries they rode a high pace and it was just not possible to attack. This performance gives me lots of confidence for the coming races. Especially in the Amstel Gold Race I want to perform well."

"I'm quite happy with my performance, considering that one week earlier I wasn't feeling good at all," he told Jean-Francois Quénet. "Unfortunately, the last 20 kilometres were too much for me. I had to walk over the Koppenberg, although I was well-placed in the middle of the road, but somebody pushed me to the wet side, then for half of the climb I had to run and I was far behind Tom Boonen's group, which was gone. For 15 km, I chased hard with Erik Zabel, Serge Baguet and Filippo Pozzato. We eventually came across to the front group but I spent too much energy in that chase. It was a big effort. I couldn't have won the Tour of Flanders because Boonen was just too strong, but what I've done today shows that I have good form before my favourite race, Paris-Roubaix."

The Russian champion made an enormous effort trying to get back into the leading group, and was very disappointed at the finish. "On the Koppenberg there was a rider that stopped right in front of me," he told Cyclingnews. "The riders that escaped there were certainly away forever. But I couldn't bear it if I wouldn't have tried to reach them. I jumped from group to group in an effort to catch them. The last gap of 30 metres proved to be too much. There were four riders from the Quick.Step team riding hard in front, that was more than I could handle. Paris-Roubaix is also something for me, but the Tour of Flanders was the race where I wanted to shine."

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