"I've been waiting for this second stage win for two years now. So I yelled with joy on the finishing line because it's been a complicated day with lots of rain and cold. Jan Hirt didn't want to cooperate so it's been a bit nervous between us but at the end I'm happy with everything."
"The truth is that it's been a very complicated day, especially because of the weather conditions and the climbs. But as a team we've worked very well for Mikel Landa and myself. It's another good day in terms of time gained on GC."
"I think I just sat behind Simon [Yates] for the whole of the Mortirolo, on a steep climb like that, there's not much you can do if you don't ride at your own pace. So I just sat there behind him hoping I could get to the top with him over the other side. I got to the top with him but was dropped on the descent so, ah well, but it was a good day.
"I think for me I just felt out of my comfort zone. The first few corners I had already stuffed up and I just didn't want to get in the way of Simon either. It was unfortunate I couldn't help down in the valley but we had [Mikel] Nieve who came back from the break and had an amazing ride so it wasn't all bad.
"I think we've got a super strong team, there's plenty of opportunities for us to go for stage wins and move up the general classification and you can see some chinks in the guys armor like we saw with Roglic today. It's not over.
"I'm starting to get pretty tired, if the suns out, it's all good."
"What can you say, at that moment it's just try to keep motivated. Of course we were informing him about the climb and how long there was to go, I mean it's his fight at that moment, most of all against himself so he can do his effort the best way possible and that's more or less it. He knows he needs to push, he knows he has to fight so that's it.
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"In the end [he limited his losses with Simon Yates [Mitchelton-Scott]) and Bauke Mollema [Trek-Segafredo] and Yates also had the support of Nieve. If you're on your own at that point the losses could've been bigger so they kept on going in a good way. At one point the radio informed us that it was only 40 seconds at the end of the descent so we had the hope that they could continue like that and get closer. In the end, at the front there was a strong group and strong legs and today we just have to be honest and say the best guys were at the front and we were fighting the best that was possible.
"We won't give up the fight. We have to be honest that today Roglic wasn't with the best climbers and he will have to make some time up on those guys. We have to say, is it realistic and honest to say we can make up the time. Of course there is still the TT, of course things can still change, it's been a crazy Giro so far and maybe things will turn. For the moment we will say we won't give up, the fight is on, the fight for pink is the same fight for the podium. He just has to follow the best guys and somehow drop them somewhere and for sure it wasn't possible today to do that."
