Michal Kwiatkowski said that Ineos Grenadiers took the lead on the toughest climb of stage 6, the 11km Col de la Luzette, in order to hold his position in the peloton and, in his words, "be safe and stay out of trouble." He admitted that it was.

Ineos Grenadiers' Jonathan Castroviejo and Kwiatkowski hardly left the lead group on the technically difficult first category climb just before the final unclassified climb to Mont Egual.

But instead of attacking for the stage win, as the former world champion claimed, the horse had long since bolted.

Kwiatkowski said, "We rode at our speed, saved our energy, played it safe, and I think we completed our mission."

The team knew the uphill surface was bad and "pretty tricky." He finished seventh on this stage, guiding Egan Bernal and Richard Karapas to eighth and ninth places, respectively.

Kwiatkowski said that rather than trying to thwart his nemesis and stage 4 winner Primoš Roglic's (Jumbo Visma) customary strategy of sprinting from the front to gain a few seconds, "Even today, I wasn't afraid to try to win a stage. Even today, I wasn't afraid to go for the stage win," he said.

Kwiatkowski said that it was one thing to keep the breakaway at a safe distance and under control, but it was quite another for Adam Yates' team to pull back the breakaway, especially given the lineup of riders involved in the move.

"I had a gut feeling that it would not be easy for Mitchelton-Scott to contain the breakaway. Today I bet on a run."

Kwiatkowski, perhaps conscious of the fact that there was not a single breakaway on Wednesday's fifth stage that was criticized by the peloton, concluded, "I think everyone had fun."