“The plan was to win the stage in the final sprint and try to get a few bonus seconds, but winning like this is way better! We found ourselves in an ideal scenario. Adam’s attack put me in a situation in which I could attack, following my instinct. It’s because of the excellent work of my teammates that I’ve done this, and I’m thankful to all of them. I’m super happy I’ve won. I’ve got one more Tour stage win now. Let’s keep this positive energy so we can win more. This Tour de France must be great to watch on TV. I was feeling really good today. Things were not going according to plan on the final climb, as we were missing one man - Juan [Ayuso] had to pull out from the race yesterday and so Joao [Almeida] was working very hard already with 8 km to go. I saw an opportunity that Adam Yates could attack and go for the stage win himself, relieving us from pulling in the Yellow Jersey group. Then, as I was feeling super good and nobody was trying anything GC-wise, I saw an opportunity to attack myself, bridge across and get a good gap for the GC as well as the stage win. I want to stress my thanks to Adam for his work today. The situation in the GC is definitely better now than it was before the stage, but you never know how things will end up. There is a long way to go until Nice. The real mountain stages just started today! The key is we have a strong team to support my options. In every interview they tell me that I have to save energy, but I love racing on instinct. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t… but I love it that way.”
