‘When you have Laporte, Van Aert and Brennan, there is not much you can do’ - Coquard and Meeus outgunned by Visma

Wout van Aert took control through the final corner before Brennan opened his sprint with around 150 metres remaining. Coquard came closest but had to settle for second, while Meeus crossed the line in third.

For Coquard, the outcome was fairly simple.

“There was nothing better to do,” the Cofidis rider told Eurosport after the finish.

Cofidis had spent much of the day contributing to the chase alongside Visma, buoyed by Coquard’s stage 8 victory and confident enough to help keep the breakaway within reach. But when the race reached the decisive kilometres, Coquard found himself up against a Visma train he struggled to see a way past.

“When you have Laporte, Van Aert and Brennan, there is not much you can do,” he said.

Coquard tried to place himself on Brennan’s wheel as the sprint began to form. Brennan held his position, however, before showing his speed once Van Aert had finished his work.

“Brennan didn’t let me in and he is simply faster,” Coquard said.

Second place nevertheless marked a better conclusion to the day for Coquard after a difficult sprint on stage 10, where he said he had almost crashed in the finale.

The ambition, he insisted, remains.

“We always want to win, but there wasn’t much that could be done today.”

Meeus also pointed towards Visma’s strength after finishing third, although the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe sprinter felt his condition was good enough to fight for more.

The decisive moment came out of the final corner, where Meeus lost some momentum just as Brennan was being launched towards the line.

“I was pushed a little towards the barriers coming out of the corner. I still managed to get out, but I didn’t have the legs anymore.”

Meeus had few complaints about his form. Instead, he felt the nature of the finish made Visma’s leadout particularly difficult to challenge.

“My form and my legs are very good, but it’s difficult to compete against a team like that,” he said of Visma | Lease a Bike.

The Belgian compared the finale to stage 5, where the short finishing straight also placed a premium on positioning and acceleration out of the final corner.

“Especially in a technical finale like this, because it was a bit like the fifth stage. There was also such a short finishing straight then.”

With Van Aert delivering Brennan through the corner, Meeus felt there was little room to make up ground once the sprint opened. “Then it is difficult to beat this leadout. I can’t do more than hit my peak power.”

He also pointed to Brennan and his leadout riders being lighter, allowing them to accelerate more quickly after the corner.

“Those guys are also five to ten kilograms lighter, so they get back up to speed more easily after that corner. It was a difficult finale.”