"It has been a really hectic day, up and down all day. We went by several villages and that meant there were lots of roundabouts and road furniture. We had a bit of bad luck, with Matteo [Trentin] crashing on one corner. Anyway, the guys did a great job. We controlled the bunch all day long, as nobody wanted to help us. In Jaizkibel we wanted to set up Tadej for the bonus sprint, and he got the most seconds – so all in all it’s gone well. As for me keeping the yellow jersey, all was down to the bonus seconds awarded in the final sprint. Had Tadej won the stage, he would have overtaken me. But as long as we had kept the yellow jersey in the team, it would have been good. It’s not easy to defend this jersey. The next two days are easier on paper, yet this is the Tour de France and every day is super hard and super technical. We’ll see what happens."
