The Spanish team was in charge of pulling the group to cut the gap, with Romeo saving Jonas Vingegaard’s Tour de France, although without intending to do so because what he wanted was to attack alone to go for the breakaway. Moments later, echelons left practically entire Movistar team out of the fight, except for their trump card.
From that moment on, the rider from Valladolid attacked constantly at the front of the peloton to join the breakaway. On the Côte de Sorèze he managed to join the chasing group of Wout van Aert, and together with the Belgian managed to catch the chasing group, but already out of the fight for a victory that Tim Wellens took.
In statements just after the end of the stage, you could see the enormous frustration of Ivan Romeo for not having been able to really fight for the win and give the victory to Movistar Team:
“I don’t know what to say. You see yourself there, you weren’t going to win, I saw a good place at the end with 3 to go when we started. The team deserved more. It was a stage for me, we went against the grain, Einer and Enric rode 20 km for me alone,” Romeo began.
“Nelson launched the attack for me, Vingegaard went after me. I restarted several times, in the end with Van Aert. But all to get a place that is of no use, I’m pretty sad and pissed off. This is not what I wanted and even more so when we got into the front group,” he added.
Iván Romeo was 14th in a stage that he fought to the end
“I got there in the end, attacked, thought I was going to be third, but out came Simmons at the end. I’m very competitive and I think the team deserved more. I have a lot of anger in my body, everything went wrong today, I think I had the legs, that’s what makes me so angry. I always want and will always want to win, that will never change,” concluded the Movistar Team rider.