Velits admitted afterwards that he regretted not trying to shut down Nibali’s second attack immediately. “It was not a really hard attack, he just went a little bit faster, but nobody reacted,” he said. “I didn’t react and maybe I underestimated him a little bit, but he got the gap and he held it to the finish.”
Sandy Casar was of a similar opinion, although he was expecting Tom Jelte Slagter (Rabobank) to be more active in the defence of his red jersey chances. “I thought that others like Slagter would go after him first, but in the end he was a bit switched off and went too late,” Casar said afterwards.