Michel Ries: “Without the support of the team this would not have been possible”

Nineteenth in the Tour del Porvenir in 2017, just over thirteen minutes from a Colombian named Egan Bernal, the young Luxembourger Michel Ries has improved ten positions with respect to the French round in the final overall of the U23 Giro. Ries was the asset for the Polartec-Kometa general. Despite his youth, 20 years old, his good performances and regularity in the Vuelta a Aragón and, above all, the Tour of l´Ain, where he was the best classified of the team, allowed us to speculate on seeing him in the ointment. “I am really happy with the result,” he confesses.

The last stage of the Giro 2018 was not entirely in his interest. Although he gained a position in the first sector, the eighth place he had lost in the previous day, Ries was one of the riders who went down, affected by a big crash. “Unfortunatly I was involved in a big crash this morning and lost 2 minutes because of that and so some guys behind me gain a lot of time on me. My TT was pretty OK and now I am really happy to have finally finished this amazing race,” he says.

An intense, frenetic turn, full of alternatives. A Giro where Ries has displayed an enormous regularity. ” I think the best moment was the stage that I finished 7th at Pian delle Fugazze because the final climb was really hard and I did a real good climb and gained a lot of time on the other GC guys”, he said when he was questioned. And the worst? “The worst moment for sure was this morning 5km before the finish line when I crashed. But even in this moment I had a really good support from the team because Diego directly gave me his bike because mine was broken, so that I could limit the loose of time”.

“I have to thank all the team members for their amazing work for me over the last ten days, because without them, without their enormous support, this would never have been possible,” concluded a happy Ries on his ninth place overall.

(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)

? Andrew Peat