After Mitchelton-SCOTT’s Matteo Trentin claimed the second OVO Energy Tour of Britain stage victory of his career in Kelso on Sunday, we caught up with him at our post-race press conference.

Here are the best of the quotes from the Italian rider, as well as the day’s unsung hero Alex Dowsett, following the dramatic finale in the Scottish Borders.

Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-SCOTT) – stage winner

“We planned this morning to let Jumbo [Visma Cycling] work through the day before tying to make it as hard as possible on the final climb. We knew that [overnight race leader Dylan] Groenewegan was likely to be dropped if we did everything right. It happened, I still had three guys with me and two of them – [Luke] Durbridge and Cameron Meyer – started to pull straight away from the top of the climb. [Alex] Edmonson took me into the last corner.

“I knew I needed to launch the sprint before the cobbles because you need the speed to carry from the asphalt onto them. Winning is a good feeling.

On his chances of winning the race: “If you want to go for the GC [overall victory] in this race, especially this year, you need to be consistent and grab seconds where you can. I’m not a really strong time trialist like Alex [Dowsett]; you can see from his attack today that he could win the GC if he gains 20 – 25 seconds in the time trial.”

Alex Dowsett (Team KATUSHA ALPECIN) – seventh

The British rider lit up the stage with a late attack that saw him caught within 100 metres of the finish line in Kelso

“I was looking for an opportunity at about 15km to go but the pace was a bit too high and nothing really presented itself.

“Then, with 3km to go, Mitchelton [SCOTT] and Israel [Cycling Academy] couldn’t really decide who was going to do the pulling and there was some hesitation. I saw [Steve] Cummings go and if he’s going then you know it’s a sign that it’s a good opportunity to go. I jumped onto him and then I just went straight over the top.

On his chances of staying away: “It was always a maybe, like holy s**t this could be happening. Excuse my language – sorry mum. You still need quite a big gap in that last kilometres because the guys that are sprinting just lift the pace so much. They’re doing 60kph to your 50kph. It was pretty heartbreaking them coming around me with 50-100 metres [to go].”

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