“It has been a very good day. My team did a super job. I felt good in the Puy Mary and tried to pull off a long-range attack. I was feeling pretty good on the descent, too, until my bike slipped and went sideways. I lost a bit of confidence there and I feel I spent too much energy on the following kilometres on the way to the Col de Pertus. Jonas did a great effort there to bridge back with me, proving that he is in top shape. I waited a bit as I wanted to sprint and secure the bonus seconds at the summit. Afterwards, I knew the last climb was not hard enough to launch a new attack, so I waited for the final sprint. I made a little mistake there, as I was not expecting this kind of finish and I didn’t know in the last few hundred metres. I wasn’t expecting such a strong sprint from Jonas, either. I don’t think I lost any psychological battle. I beat him on the first climb, and then he came back on the second one. We are pretty even. Now all I need is to keep this solid gap going into the Pyrenees. The climbs there will be quite different and more suited to the kind of efforts I’ve done in training to prepare for the Tour de France. It’s going to be a close battle, and very beautiful to watch. I’m sure nobody has any doubts anymore about how good a shape Jonas is in. We can’t forget Remco [Evenepoel] and Primoz [Roglic] - even if they lost some time today, they’ll be up there.”
