Samuel Sanchez – “We must enjoy the good moments...”

"I knew it was an important day, and I had to try something because I was late to my position in the general classification meant that I was not a dangerous rival for some of the GC riders. I had my chance and I decided to go. On the descent after the Tourmalet, Gilbert helped widen the gap [to the peloton with the yellow jersey] along with one of his team-mates. As I had also a team-mate in front, Ruben Perez Moreno, I knew it was the right time to attack. I was also aware that Andy Schleck had lost a lot of team-mates and so did Alberto Contador, so they were not able to reel in our escape.
“Then we had to keep up and push on with our attack. I knew that if I kept a lead of around 30 seconds for the last kilometers, then I would be able to arrive at the finish and be able to win.
“It’s a day full of emotion, as I rode in the "orange wave" with the cheers of ‘our’ audience – it was very impressive! And here we are celebrating the [10th] anniversary of the victory of [Roberto] Laiseka, so it's a very special victory.
“I can not believe it. Compared to my Olympic title this is totally different, because that victory [in Beijing in 2008] happened a long way from here. But we must enjoy all the good moments of happiness, because in this job we also have our difficult moments.
“The only goal of the day was to win this stage. Now I have the polka-dot jersey, but that is just a bonus. Otherwise, I hope to recover well first and share a good celebration of this victory with my team-mates. Then the race will put everyone in his respective place."