 Alaphilippe said after the race that he had not been intending to go for the sprint at the end of the race ; the team 's plan was to set up Kwiatkowski . He started sprinting only after his directeur sportif shouted " go , go " at him over the radio . Alaphilippe said that he had briefly thought that he was going to win the sprint ; his second @-@ place finish was , however , the most important result of his career so far . He said , " For my first time performance here , I can 't help but be pleased . " Albasini 's third place was better than his team had expected : before the race , Orica – GreenEDGE 's directeur sportif Matt White had not expected him to be as strong because of the addition of the extra climb . Albasini himself also described the race as " a lot tenser " ; he also said that Valverde was " one of the strongest guys in those kinds of finishes " . 
