Chris Froome (Team Sky) after winning stage 16 of the Vuelta a Espana(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Chris Froome (Team Sky)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Lennard Kämna (Team Sunweb)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Chris Froome (Team Sky) – stage winner and race leader
I was riding it at the speed I felt best. I wasn't really getting many time checks from the car so I didn't really know where I was. I actually thought it wasn't good news, so I was worried half way through. But coming into the last six or seven kilometres, I found out I was on track to fight for the stage. It was a big relief.
I'm super, super happy to be in this position. It's an amazing feeling to extend my lead now and be in this position, with four days of big racing left now. I'm going to take it one day at a time but I want to say a massive thanks to the support team at Team Sky. It's a huge part of being able to do what I'm able to do, having everything there to focus on the job at hand. I have a good buffer but the race isn't over, so I'll have to keep fighting every day and get one day closer to Madrid. Tomorrow is going to be absolutely brutal. Los Machucos, from what I can see, is a wall. It's a big GC battle for sure.
My time trial was always good through the years. Now I'm in top form and top shape and I can see it in the time trial. I'm really happy with that. Now I hope to stay on this level and fight every day, not more than that I think.
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It was a real time trial, when you had to produce huge speed. But there was a lot of side winds and so it wasn’t easy. I kept moving on the road but it wasn’t easy to keep the speed high because we did some parts at almost 80km/h.
After I did the recon, I asked the mechanic to put on a 58-tooth chainring. You can save energy that way when you push but you also need good legs too.
