“It was pretty hard in the end. On paper that was one of the hardest days that we've done in this Tour in terms of the amount of climbing that we faced. Personally, a sigh of relief after today but it was always to be a day I was sort of quite cautious of, thinking that today it could really kick off. So to have got to the finish without any losses and, despite the weather being quite wet and tricky towards the end, I'm pretty happy to have that behind me now.
“It looked quite controlled but I can tell you everyone's legs were hurting out there at the end. I think, especially after yesterday's stage, quite a few people were feeling it.
“There were a few things going on in today's race; it was definitely a bit of a race within a race, people looking at the team competition and trying to have numbers up the front... but it did get grippy towards the end with the GC riders, especially going over the last climb and the descent in the rain. But all in all, a pretty good day and I'm really happy with the guys – they really came to the fore this morning and showed that they're here to protect the yellow jersey and hopefully we've just got the one day left to do that.
“Tomorrow's stage is just 125km but it's going to be a full-on race – that's what I'm expecting anyway.
“We've just got to stay on it, keep doing what we've done all the way through this Tour and see it all the way until tomorrow evening.
“I felt pretty tired after yesterday to be honest but I'm really relieved to have today behind us. This is an incredible position for me to be in. I mean, to be here one day away from Paris with a five minute advantage on the second place on GC is really a good position to be in but, having said that, I don't want to be too complacent at all.”
