"Of course you dream about hitting back. I knew that they would attack and they did. It was very hard but I was always with my focus and I was quite relaxed. I couldn't follow the first attack from [Nairo] Quintana so I had to follow my own pace a little bit. I came closer and closer and in the end I still had something left for the finish. It was incredible.
"[Did you think you would win?] He accelerated, and I thought then at least I have time on [Thibaut] Pinot, [Vincenzo] Nibali and [Bauka] Mollema and all of those guys. I just tried to follow but then I saw that Quintana was dropped so I went full gas to the line and I even had the legs to pass [Ilnur] Zakarin. It was really nice.
"It's a big advantage to go into the last week. We will see if it is enough. This of course is a stage that really suits me with a lot of flat and an uphill finish, but in the last week it will be a lot different. There's a lot of climbing to do and we're far from done."
"It was a final climb quite different to what we expected. I feel like I did a great climb, giving it many tries, spending all energy I had to test my rivals' condition. However, we saw a really strong Dumoulin, who did a fantastic climb. We had a bit of a tail wind and that might have also favoured a different type of rider. My legs responded pretty well, just as I expected them to do, and something to be optimistic is that I took a gap on some other rivals, so we can now focus on the fight against the race leader. The stages on the third week should play on my favour: those are really different to today's, which was only one ascent, and with all climbing still to come in this Giro, we must continue to give our best. I'm sure that, as long as I have a little bit of energy left, I'll spend it and try everything until the end of the Giro."
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"Every stage is a bit different. We have a lot of mountains to come. All the riders fear the riders and it's hard because not a lot of teams are working and we did today. We wanted to win the stage but we did the job and finally [Pinot] is fifth and for us that is a good result. There was a good dynamic. We need a good group before the mountains come.
"I's positive for us, even if we didn't win. We need this kind of effort whether it is for a stage win or the podium. We are still looking for third on the podium."
"We still don't have feedback from Vincenzo [Nibali]. Our plan was to race on the wheels today and to control the situation but Tom was so super good today that nobody could follow him and he rode to a solo victory. We lost some priceless time but we did what we wanted to do and we are sure that Vincenzo gave everything and there is still the final week to gain something.
"Every second is important, otherwise Dumoulin wouldn't go to try and gain more time. Perhaps, he knows that the last week could be difficult for him too so that's why every moment he feels good he tries to gain some time. He also tries not to lose it but it's not every day you can have perfect legs. We try every day and when you find someone with better than you are, this is the result."
"It was really testing the waters today. It was a perfect climb for Dumoulin. It was pretty much like a time trial and he rode it like a time trial so he was always going to be hard to beat and he was going to do some damage. Adam's objective there was to have a little test and see how it goes. He was good and we were really happy with how it went. Today is a mountain top finish but it's nothing like the Dolomites will be next week.
"[Next week] Really you've got to survive the harder attacks from the guys like Quintana. We saw Quintana attack today but that's going to be happening on multiple more occasions on the stages next week. Initially, it's just going to be feeling out who is in good form in that last week and who has expended a lot of energy in the opening weeks and take advantage of that."
