It's a great feeling to actually get a win again. [I have had] so many second places at the Tour since the last one. I was a bit nervous because of the headwind, I didn't think it was going to happen. The race went so hard on the first part of the climb - I saw everyone was on the limit, and there were no teammates left, so why not have a try.
The legs just were there - I don't know what happened. Maybe adrenaline or what. I felt really good yesterday and didn't quite get up there in the final to have a go. It was a good sign for today, I was really relaxed all day - not confident but looking forward to having a crack, looking forward to racing hard on the last climb.
The last time I got second here, I had already lost a bit of time before the stage, and I thought maybe they'd let me go. Today there was no question, I just attacked as hard as I could.
To get the win - it makes this Tour de France a success, and everything else will be a bonus. (NBC)
Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) - second place on stage 6
We said that if we were in a good place on today's stage we would try and win the stage, perhaps with Alexis [Vuillermoz] - that was if Romain [Bardet] didn't have any problems. At the beginning of the climb there weren't any problems, so I pushed hard.
When I was fighting with Richie Porte, the wind gusted in from the right and it meant that I just missed the point of attack, which wasn't great.
[On Bardet's problem] I didn't actually know about that, nobody told me. I don't think there was anything I could have done. We'll try to fight to get it back. (Eurosport)
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It was very hard out there today. We were expecting that but it was very tense in the last few kilometres before the climb. I have to say that I am a little bit disappointed because I felt like I could have done better. I felt that my team did an amazing job for me, and we were in charge for the majority of the day, but in the end, it's one of those things. Normally, that tempo suits me and I was feeling good at the start of the climb, but in the end I didn't have anything left. I was tired. I'm a bit disappointed with the way the stage went. (Eurosport)
I’m really happy to keep [the yellow jersey] - it was a really hard climb. The tempo never slowed down, and that is what kind of killed me to do a better placing. I’m really happy I didn’t lose any time on the rivals, and Alaphilippe was not second on the stage so I could keep it.
Overall a good day for me and Richie.
[On Dan Martin’s ride} I was expecting this kind of thing from him, he’s pretty good at finding the right moment, and of course being super strong - if you could hold this on the final stretch it’s an impressive effort. I think he really deserved the win.
[On keeping yellow] Now we see, there are two flat stages. There is a it of work and always something happening, so it’s good to be awake. I was hoping to keep it until here and then we would see. I’m pretty happy to have four days in yellow - I’m getting over my result of two years ago so it’s pretty good.
I was going for it because I saw the opportunity. But like I said, I don't think anyone will let me go. I've tried three times now. Unfortunately, I couldn't get on the podium there, and I'm a few seconds to the jersey, but, yeah, Dan, that was just too strong.
If [Tom Dumoulin lost time], then that's good for us. A bit of bad luck.
I can be pretty happy that I took some bonus seconds. In the final I tried to play it a bit too late. It was quite a hard finish so I wanted to wait for that. But Dan and Latour were gone then and Valverde went, so I knew I wasn't going to beat him for third, so just stayed where I was and saved that one percent for another day.
We didn't go that hard up [Mur de Bretagne] the first time, but just in general the day was hard. It was hot and always fighting for position at 2,000 metres of elevation. Yesterday was hard as well, so it's taken its toll.
