“Astana put a big gamble on this year to make sure we’re good here at the Tour de France. My boss has done a big gamble for us to come here and win at least one stage. That shows he’s someone who knows what the Tour de France is. You have to go all in. We’ve done it. We worked on exactly what we wanted to do. How we built the team, what we’ve done with the equipment. Every little detail has been put towards specifically today. You see what it means! It doesn’t mean we are going to be top of the UCI rankings or anything but the Tour de France is bigger than cycling isn’t it. Normally it takes me a few days to get into it. I know how it works, my trainer and people around me know how it is. If everybody knew how it was everyone would be a bike rider and my job would be a lot harder. I’ve done 15 Tour de Frances now, I don’t like to have bad days and I don’t like to suffer but I know it’s just in the head and if you push you get through it. You work and you can have an opportunity, things still have to go your way. We didn’t nail it as a team like we wanted to do, but the boys improvised and got me there in the best position and I shot onto whatever train was going and was able to win. Especially when you are not physically as good as everybody else, it’s definitely beneficial to use your head a bit.”
