Michal Kwiatkowski perfectly described what Imola's World Championships, and much of the sport as a whole, felt after Julien Alaphilippe won the world title with a gutsy solo attack. The French rider did what he often does, attacked with all his might on the final climb to win. Kwiatkowski missed out on the bronze medal, losing to Switzerland's Marc Hirschi by just a few centimeters, but he appreciated Alaphilippe's boldness.

"It's frustrating not to be able to fight for the rainbow at the end of the day, but I'm really happy for Julien," Kwiatkowski told Cycling News. [He] always has a great attitude. He's always happy and it's nice to see Alaphilippe win. I'm happy for him."

Kwiatkowski won the world title in Ponferrada in 2014 with a similar solo attack. He knew he was close to winning again in Imola.

"Finishing fourth is not the best result. I missed out on a medal by a few centimeters and I couldn't outrun Hirschi. [The rainbow jersey was also within striking distance. I really believed I could catch Julien. But he was the strongest."

Kwiatkowski and Alaphilippe often attacked each other in Poggio and fought for the win in Milan-San Remo. This time, Alaphilippe attacked perfectly, got away alone, and jumped into the descent to win.

"If I had waited for him to make a move or something, I might have had a chance. But I was too far from the summit and his acceleration was much stronger than mine," he explained.

"What can I say? I am happy about my condition. The other guys from the Polish National Team ran really well, and that was really important today. That was really important today."

"It was a very hard day and everyone was moving very carefully. It looked stable but on the climbs we were pushing to the limit speed and everyone was waiting for the last lap. But as you can see from (Tadei) Pogachar, it was too far to pull away. There were still a lot of countries with a lot of people in front of us, so it was pretty difficult to do anything before that."