Tom Danielson's Vuelta: Feeling stronger, but playing the team role

Hi there Cyclingnews readers,

Well, I was stronger today than in the other mountain stages, that is for sure. I was with the first guys, but Johan asked me to wait for Janez. That is what I had to do. I lost time the other day…I still don’t know why that happened, but my legs are better now. Today I was easy on the back of Marchante when Sastre attacked. Those guys were going across to Vino and Kashechkin and I was there. But when your teammate is in the gold jersey, I guess that is what you have to do…

I hope I can do something later in the race. It seems I am back to where I should have been. I can’t explain why I was so bad in the first few days, but today I felt good.

It is very disappointing the way things turned out earlier on in the race. I am happy for Janez, the way things turned out for him [taking gold] but I am disappointed that I had that bad day, and also lost a bit of time on the first mountain stage. I would like to make a good Vuelta so we will see.

Click here to read the rest of Tom's diary from Stage 8.