"I was fighting the whole day. I was with Jens Voigt of RADIOSHACK NISSAN TREK in the break and that was an amazing experience. We had a really good rhythm. Jens gave me a lot of tips on how to ride in a break and how to assess the riders that were with us in the break."

"When we got the news that Linus (Gerdemann) was coming from behind, Jens and I waited for him. Linus brought with him a handful of riders, including Fabian Wegmann (Garmin Barracuda) and Paul Martens (Rabobank). When that group had joined our group, the attacks came fast. Gerdemann anticipated well and attacked as well. Martens, Wegmann and I joined him in his attack."

In the last lap the news came that two riders were trying to bridge across, so I worked along to keep the pace high. Gerdemann then went again, with Wegmann in his wheel. I waited a bit and then I attacked Martens to bridge across. We sprinted for the win. Wegmann was clearly the fastest, so he deserved the victory. Gerdemann is also really strong, his shape is clearly really, really good."

"I'm so happy now. I didn't expect this at all. I was hoping for a place in the top ten or the top fifteen, maybe. But this is amazing. It was really nice to race with all these big names."