‘We also had our plan and we did exactly the opposite’ – How Soudal-Quickstep avoided disaster to deliver Paul Magnier to Giro d’Italia victory

Long after most of the Giro d’Italia peloton had reached the finish at Burgas on stage 1 and headed for their team buses, a couple of hundred metres past the line, two Soudal-Quick Step support riders continued to patiently field answers for a small pack of journalists, keen to find out the inside story on how teammate Paul Magnier had sprinted to the biggest victory of his career to date.

The two in question, Jasper Stuyven and Dries van Gestel, had both played instrumental roles in Magnier’s success, as the Frenchman was quick to explain to the Giro media, saying they had done “an amazing job” at getting him into position just when it was needed.