One day after his withdrawal from the Tour de France on the Col de l’Agnel, Stijn Devolder commented on his experience in this year’s Tour:
“As far as I’m concerned this Tour de France was very hard for me” – explained Devolder – “In Brest I got sick and spent three days with a fever. I really wanted to do well in the first week of the race, until the first day of rest, to understand what would have been my real value to the Tour. In the stage with Tourmalet and the arrival in Hautacam, things didn’t go as well as I had hoped, and I lost a lot of time. From that day forward I lost the feeling. I tried setting goals for myself, I tried to motivate and get back in the race mentally, but to no avail. Yesterday on the Col De l’Agnel I was completely empty and I chose to stop. I’m really sorry, especially for the other guys on the team who created a great first week for me. I thank them all, as well as all the team staff and the people who supported me during the stage in the Pyrenees and the Alps. To all of them and to my fans I say I will return to the Tour again. Negative experiences are good opportunities to grow; they help you improve and come back stronger”.
The winner of the 2008 edition of the Tour of Flanders also reflected on his preparation for this year’s Tour:
“Before the Tour maybe I gave it too much, that is to say, I competed in a lot of races with the objective of winning, but to my way of thinking regarding cycling, it’s difficult to think of racing without riding to try to win. When I feel well I love racing to win. In the future I will probably have to change my mind set and concentrate more on specific goals. We’ll see. In the next few weeks I’ll have time to talk things over with the team’s technical staff and make a well considered decision.”
“Stijn is a great athlete” – explained the sporting director Dirk Demol – “When he’s in good form he’s unstoppable. In the future he’ll have to learn to race and give it his all even when his condition isn’t 100%. We’re going to be working on this.”
Demol also wanted to address rumors about his possible move to Astana that appeared the media yesterday:
“I’d like to clarify that the news reporting that I will be returning to Astana at the end of the year is unfounded. I’m Sporting Director for Team Quick Step, and that’s that right now. I really don’t understand these speculative rumors.”