I'm super happy not just for me but for the team. They gave me this opportunity even though Domenico [Pozzovivo] is feeling very good for the GC. He gave me a free pass today to play for the stage win, and I'm super happy for it.
(On going up against Nico Denz) I was not super confident, that's why I tried to attack him several times in the last 10km, but then he collaborated, even though I attacked him. So, I decided to risk it all for the final sprint. I was not super confident but when I saw he was not passing me, I had even more power and tried to go all the way to the line.
I think this year I made a big step forward. I feel very good in team Bahrain-Merida, they gave me lots of support and lots of opportunities to do my own results. I'm super happy about it and I hope there's more to come over the rest of the season.
(On Esteban Chaves getting dropped) He just had a bad moment in the first climb of the day. Straight out of the rest day you don't know how the body responds. He just had a bad moment and like that, it's over. It was a really hard chase. I know he's worked extremely hard for this. Maybe he can bounce back and get a few stage wins.
(On sprinting for time bonus) I was going to go for them as well, but once I saw Pinot lining up with the team to do a lead-out for the sprint. I came behind him and managed to beat him in the sprint. I'm going to need every second I can get... maybe I'm going to have to start sprinting for more than bonus seconds.
(Losing Chaves, does it change your tactic) No, I was going to apporach the race exactly the same. There are many more difficult stages to come. We'll see how that goes.
That's the Giro… I've got a difficult relationship with Italy, it's love and hate. Just a few days ago I enjoyed one of the best days of my career and now it's hard for my morale. But that's life, we can only do our best. The important thing is that we've still got the leader's jersey. Our plans won't change.
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We've still got to understand my problems. I just didn't have the strength and couldn't stay with the best on the first climb. We tried to chase with the team and got to within one minute but it didn't work out.
Our goal doesn't change as a team. We started with the idea to win the Giro and we'll continue with that plan. (RAI)
The strategy was to put a guy in the breakaway. We have three interesting cards with Sergio Henao, Wout Poels and obviously Froomey but it was not possible for him to be in the break. We wanted Wout to be in the breakaway and to put him back in the game but at the end it went crazy. Esteban Chaves had a bad day and then it was completely different. A lot of teammates of the GC contenders tried to put him out of the race. (Eurosport)
There was a lot of work put in but it has come to fruition and it has worked well for us. It's gone really well for us and we're pretty delighted with how it has turned out in the end.
[Mohoric] definitely had good legs. Our main effort was to protect Domenico [Pozzovivo] and then we were able to go for the stage win as well. It has all gone really well. (Eurosport)
Matt White – Mitchelton-Scott senior directeur sportif
I haven't spoken to him since we passed him in the race but in the last couple of days he's had a scratchy throat with allergies. When I talk to him at the finish, we'll know the real details. He didn't crash and he's not sick or injured, so I'm presuming he had problems with allergies. There's a lot of pollen around.
For Esteban, it was a bad day. Now his chances of general classification have gone. But, look, Simon is still in a very good position and now all of our energy will turn to looking after him and keeping the maglia rosa.
Simon is in the best form of his life and he knows that every second will count against riders like Tom Dumoulin. Today he picked up another two seconds. It might not seem like much but if you add them up, by the time we get to the time trial, it will make a difference. (RAI)
