"I don't know how I could win. It's unbelievable. From the beginning of the Giro I hoped I could make a result in this stage - that I can do this, it's like a dream for me. It's a big victory for our team, our sponsors, and I'm very happy. I want to say thank you to the staff, riders, sponsors and general manager for this opportunity. It is a big race and it was my dream.
"I always race well in the cronoscalata and I thought I could be in the top 10. But I won and I don't know how I could do this.
"Yesterday I tried to keep my strength. In the last kilometers I went slowly, thinking only about this race. I did my best but I didn't expect to win. However, this is not going to be my last victory."
"This morning I was hoping to still have the jersey after the time trial. I knew I was really good after yesterday. I think the guys suffered a lot more than I did. I gave it all in this time trial. It's too bad I didn't win but I think I showed that my condition is very good. I even gained time on my rivals, so it's looking good.
"I saw that I started really fast. I think I had the fastest intermediate time. But I was a little bit too excited at the start I think, and I had to ease up a little bit. Then my coach didn't give any time gaps anymore, he just said go full. I tried to keep my pace, and just in the last kilometer he said to try for the win as well. I tried to go full and I did, but I was a little too slow. It's too bad I didn't win the stage this weekend, but I'm very happy to still have this jersey.
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"Of course it's still a long week to go, but we will see. We have to take it day by day. I think I've showed I'm one of the better riders in this race, and I'm feeling confident. Hopefully like last year I can start to race as well in the last week and play with the guys. I'm confident my team is strong enough to help me with this."
Alexander Vinokourov (Astana manager)
"I haven't seen Vincenzo [Nibali] yet, but he had a very difficult day. He had a problem with the mechanical. It's not great for the morale, and not a good day for him altogether. We lost a lot today, but I don't think it's won yet for Kruijswijk. We'll keep working on our strategy and see what we can do. We have a good team, we're strong, we showed today that we are all here for Vincenzo. The stage yesterday was hard and he had to fight hard, and he had to fight today. It's not over until Turin, we'll see what happens."
"Today was a day that I could take relaxed, really. The last couple of days I was attacking all the time. Today I tried to measure the effort, and tomorrow's the rest day - then we'll start again.
"I have a few points lead now, but I'm not sure if it's mathematically done."
