 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".
