Christophe Riblon expresses anger at missing out on overall victory at Tour de Pologne
Christophe Riblon has expressed his anger at missing out on victory in last week's Tour de Pologne.
Last Updated: 06/08/13 5:35pm
The French Ag2r-La Mondiale rider led the race by 19 seconds going into the final day's individual time trial, but a 14th-place finish on the stage saw him surrender the overall win to Dutch rival Pieter Weening.
His poor performance also allowed Spain's Ion Izagirre to snatch second place and undid good work from earlier in the race, when Riblon won solo on stage two and finished second on stage six after well-timed attacks in the mountains.
Although the 32-year-old climber has claimed two stages of the Tour de France during his career, including on Alpe d'Huez in this year's edition, he has never won a major stage race and was annoyed to miss a golden opportunity in Poland.
"I can't be totally satisfied with this third place," he said. "I know that I had the level to win and I'm obviously disappointed and frustrated.
'Missed opportunity'
"I did what I had to do before the last stage by taking an advantage of some seconds on my competitors. I feel as if I had failed on the time trial and not having done what I am able to do.
"I have enough experience in cycling to know that you have to seize the opportunity when it arises. I'm not sure that such a chance to win a stage race on the WorldTour circuit will happen again."
Riblon finished 43 seconds down on Weening and 22 seconds adrift of Izagirre in the time trial as the top three places in the final general classification were separated by just 16 seconds.
He admitted the narrow margin of the defeat had added to the disappointment of missing out on victory.
"I particularly regret my result on the time trial because the gap to the victory is very small," Riblon added.
"Just after I crossed the finish line of the last stage, I thought that I was one minute behind the winner, but when I saw that I was only 16 seconds behind the leader, the disappointment was even greater."
