"Mikkel [Bjerg] did a super good pull on the Hourquette d’Ancizan, and also at the beginning of the Val Louron climb. From then on, the initial plan was for me to ride 15 minutes full gas. But, as I was pushing it, I began to hear on the radio that more and more riders were getting dropped from my pace and I ended up going on for much longer than expected. It was a big effort for me, but it went well and I’m happy to pull it out because it meant we could actually lead the race on the mountains for the first time on this Tour de France. It was very special. With 5 kilometres to go I thought that Jonas [Vingegaard] and Tadej [Pogacar] might act very nice and let me win the stage… but then I realized that there are no gifts on this sport. Anyway, it was very nice to pull off this performance and to stand on the podium with the most aggressive rider award. Today we rode with lots of grit. We were racing on emotion, basically, for the guys who couldn’t take part today. There was no secret plan: we just wanted to make the race hard. Tomorrow will be hard as a well. Right now I just look forward to rest… but, once I get some sleep, I’ll probably be more excited about tomorrow’s stage."
