“We knew today we were not going to be as close to the time limit as we were on Sunday, but still we had to be focused the whole day. My teammates were there with me, helping me up and down the mountains. I’m very tired - I guess everybody is. I’ve done many Tours de France, but this for sure is one of the hardest. Being here is very cool. I spoke to [race director Christian] Prudhomme in the eve of the race and I told him how much I love this race. I’m a man of my word, so I won’t quit: I’ll keep going for as long as I can. Let’s see how it goes tomorrow. Just because we have won several times, it doesn’t mean it is easy to do it.”
