It's unbelievable. This is the best start for the Giro d'Italia. I think I knew we had to be up front - we had a very hard stage to Etna. I made the break with Jack (Haig), I want to say thank you for Jack, he pulled a lot in the breakaway. In the final I rode with Yates, I was first and he claimed the maglia rosa. How unbelievable is that? I think also I'm in the king of the mountains jersey - it's like a dream. Now we go to the mainland - we're super excited and will keep on dreaming.
(Was it the plan?) No, not at all. The start was a little crazy there with a lot of attacks going. I don't know how but Esteban was in the front there with a really big group. That meant we could sit back and I did the same final - I tried to be the best as possible. I didn't really need to do anything so I could sit in the wheels and save some energy, because of course we had Esteban in the lead. In the end, it worked out perfectly.
I felt really good - I'm not really sure (how it happened) - I looked across the road and everybody was looking at each other and there was a little bit of a gap. I took a chance and I got across. It’s worked out really good.
(How did you decide who would win?) I said to him as soon as I caught him that he could take the stage because if I had enough time then I would take the jersey. He'd been out on the road all day so I think he deserved it.
"There were a lot of attacks today but only Yates had the legs to really pull on. I decided to spice things up a little bit and see how everyone was doing. I felt like I had something left, not a lot but some, and I wanted to know if I was the only one feeling like that.
"I wasn’t super today but I was there so it was alright. It was good that with not the best legs I could still hang on. I still have a good position int he GC but today I wasn’t the best. It was a difficult final climb, really long and challenging. It’s difficult to draw conclusions based on today."
It was a very difficult day. [Fabio] Aru was there with is as well. I thought that many of the other teams played good tactics today and that made it really tough. I'm hoping that I'll be able to maintain this good form throughout the rest of the Giro d'Italia. (Eurosport)
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Today was pretty perfect. We managed to get that massive group away at the start, and to having me and Esteban in there was perfect. We cooperated pretty well for a big group, and for Esteban to get the stage win and Simon to get the jersey, it shows how strong the team is and makes me excited for what we can do in this Giro.
