"I can't believe what just happened. I've spent so many kilometres in breakaways during this Giro. I thought I'd never make it, but I've won today. It's insane. It's the dream of a lifetime.”
Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) - second on stage, retook points jersey
"For sure I'm a little disappointed I did not win. If you saw how the breakaway went, for sure he's a lucky winner today. He was the strongest today. They were fighting really hard against our team when they were pulling. For sure I am happy for him that he won, and I'm happy to get this jersey back.
"It's still a fight to keep [the jersey] in the mountains, because it's not easy the next two stages. I'm just happy to wear it every day that I can. I was really disappointed after my crash to lose it. Now I think I have recovered, and I just hope I can take it to Verona to give something back to my team.
"The team showed that we are still fighting for the jersey, and we were working 100 per cent for this. We didn't get the break back, but we got the jersey back and that was a goal for us so we're happy now.
"In the end, yes [it's more emotional than winning a stage]. We didn't think I'd get it off [Arnaud] Demare and I started thinking, 'Shit! I lost everything today,' but the team did an amazing job and I'm really happy.
"It's still a hard fight to Verona. We have two really hard stages over the next two days, but we'll keep fighting for the jersey to Verona, and if we get there and still have the jersey, then we're happy."
"It was a very long stage. It was intense only at the beginning, then it was pretty quiet. I had the support of the team once again. It will be a very important test tomorrow, but I am very confident I can keep the maglia rosa."
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Jay McCarthy (Bora-Hansgrohe) - teammate retook points jersey
"That's great. Definitely disappointed we didn't bring that last guy back. I think it was maybe communication with the race radio and the time gaps, so it's a shame to miss out on the stage but great to get the jersey back.
"As you could see, we all had to work well, and there were a couple of teams that were very interested in the sprint. of course, FDJ weren't going to ride with us, but we had a few teams to ride with so it was a pretty fast last 40km of the race."
