"It’s a special moment, a special day. After Vacansoleil, I was not in the ProTour anymore and I fight back and I think this is my biggest achievement yet, so I’m very happy.
"Sometimes you have to be lucky to be in the right break, with the good legs, and everything has to come together. Now is my day so I’m very happy. There are too many people [to dedicate this to], but especially my old team Rabobank, and this team, they believe in me, I get opportunities to go on the attack, it’s important to have a team behind you that support you so I’m very happy."
"Today finished with 20km of climbing. Again I want say the team is unbelievable, they stayed with me all stage. You saw in the final, Cameron is up there for the last 45 kilometers. This guy is unbelievable. The whole team worked really well, they saved me from the wind, got me drinks. I’m really happy. Another day with the red jersey and every day with this jersey is an important day.
"It’s a big responsibility, but I have a really good team, these guys have great experience, they tell me really important things. It’s a big responsibility but we have worked really hard here."
Mikel Landa (Astana), whose teammate Fabio Aru attacked and gained time
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“We just tried to be in the peloton but then we heard what was happening behind us [Froome in trouble] and so Aru attacked to take a step forward on GC. We didn’t want to risk anything, we didn’t think anyone would try to attack, we were trying to recover but in the end we went for it.”
Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo), who tried to chase Aru down
“When I feel good I want to win. My teammates were working, Jesper [Hansen] is good and pushed a really hard tempo. Then on the last two kilometres I was a little bit asleep when Aru attacked. Afterwards I tried to attack and catch him.
"I lost a few seconds but not too much. It’s a long Vuelta, I feel good, I have a really strong team here, they support me 100 per cent. In the last week we will see who is more strong."
"I knew that the break could make it, I was in the first move of the day and again in the one that stuck. The peloton were gaining on us but we knew that we could make it. I tried to attack but I couldn’t get a gap and as I was the first to go, the others then put the responsibility on me to close the gaps and I ended up emptying myself. It was a shame.
"The positive thing is that every day I’m getting better. I came here under the weather, it has been costing me sleep and I’ve noticed it. I’m getting better and am optimistic for the second and third weeks.”
