Between much-needed swigs of water at the Vuelta a España stage 10 finish and the occasional cough, second-placed Quentin Pacher succinctly summed up for reporters the reasons why he had just been roundly outdueled by Wout van Aert, and why, well before the finish, the Frenchman knew his chances of defeating the Belgian were close to zero.
"He is a real all-rounder, he can do everything - he can climb well, he can sprint well, he's really hard to beat," Pacher said.
A few moments before, Pacher had become the latest victim of Van Aert's ultra-versatility. Just nine days earlier, Van Aert won a bunch sprint in Castelo Branco and then on stage 7, he'd taken Vuelta triumph number two in the hilly finale in Cordoba. Then come stage 10 at Baiona nearly a thousand kilometres further north, Van Aert once again was victorious - this time neatly dispatching Pacher, his final breakaway rival, with a smartly timed acceleration for the line.
No matter the terrain or the type of stage, after nearly six months without a victory following his terrible crash in April in the Belgian Classics, the Visma-Lease a Bike racer is more than making up for lost time in Spain. His third Vuelta a España stage win in just over a week also comes after he led the race outright for two days early on and further boosts his already considerable lead in the points classification, too.
Van Aert's battle for green proved to be a key moment in how the stage played out, too, with the Belgian cleverly using his acceleration for the intermediate sprint to act as a springboard for dropping all the other riders in the five-man break of the day through the rugged hills of southern Galicia.
"It was a really hard fight to get in the breakaway in the first place," Van Aert explained afterwards. "And once I was there there were quite a few tough guys, some from teams like QuickStep" - William Junior Lecerf - "as well as Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates).
"So I was never really sure I could win and I knew they'd try to drop me on the final [cat.1] climb. So I knew I had to get away sooner."
"Once I dropped the rest and was up the road with Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), I knew I had a really good companion to go for it in the last kilometres, which created a great situation for me."
"The intermediate sprint was a key point in the race," Pacher confirmed. "When Wout went for it, I realised that nobody in the break cared about the points so he was probably trying to get a gap before the climb at the same time. But I knew if he got away."
Once off the front with Van Aert, Pacher recognised afterwards he was racing for second. But as the Groupama-FDJ racer said, too, "I much prefer to be beaten by Wout van Aert than just to sit in the peloton, so I didn't think about it too much."
Van Aert himself said he is delighted to be ticking off the 'to-do' list for his Vuelta so quickly.
"For sure I came to this race to try to win stages, but I also wanted the green jersey, to have a chance of riding in the red jersey and that's all done. And it feels really good to have three stage victories when we're only ten stages into the race."
"To be honest, I'm happy if it stays at three, But with the legs I have and the great team support I've got as well, I can't see why I can't go for a few more opportunities, too."
Even if Van Aert doesn't get any more victories in the Vuelta - and at this point in the game, that looks unlikely - his points total now stands at an impressive 243, considerably more than the 162 for closest rival Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceunink). It's too soon to say that Van Aert has won the classification, of course, but for now his chances of becoming the first Belgian to do so since Greg van Avermaet in 2008 are rising fast. And with three stage victories and counting, come what may Van Aert's Vuelta a España has already been a rip-roaring success.
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