"I knew it was Sagan on my wheel because I kept seeing his hair. I knew he was strong on these finishes but know with 200m to go I know it would be my victory today."
“It was very hot. I spent a lot of time at the front of the group with my team today. I asked Movistar if they would help with the pace setting but they weren’t interested in helping us. I was thinking about the last climb which was up and down and a very hard climb. I have to be happy with second place because a climb like this was very hard.
"To be honest I did too much at the start of the climb. Then I started to recover and was on Alejandro’s wheel but in the last few meters he just pulled away. There’s not much more I could have done. I just didn’t have the legs today.”
“The guys on the team have a lot of experience and were with me all day. In the last 60km it was fast and I was scared with the wind and it was crazy but the team put me in at the front all day. I started on the final climb near the front and the team were great with me. It was really explosive on the final climb.
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"I saw at the last corner that Roche had attacked an I was in bad position but I could see him in the finale with Valverde and Sagan and they had caught him. It was close for sure."
