"Today I’m one day closer to Paris. I did expect Tadej Pogacar to attack me today. He did it already on the second last climb, and I could match his acceleration, which was very strong and not easy to follow, so it turned out alright for me. I will try to keep it like this every day. Our goal is to win the Tour de France, and I guess every attack takes me closer to delivering it. The plan today was to send someone in the break, because having a satellite rider up front is always useful and can be very important on a stage like this on which we expected long-range attacks. It worked out perfectly. We did a great work as a team and I’m still on the leader jersey with the same margin. Consequences of my crash? Well, I felt super good on the bike yesterday already. I was a bit sore on Sunday, but the bad feelings are now gone. Especially on the bike, it doesn’t hurt at all."
