“This whole year has been incredible. And now to do so well in the Tour de France, to win the queen stage, it’s incredible. I just want to thank my team, because they have given me so much. It’s not easy to do a three-week stage race and then also I had the role of leader after few days. We slowly focused on that. I stressed a lot about that. Yet in the last few days I felt more and more comfortable with it. I was afraid I was going to be caught in the final kilometres, or in the final descent. I was feeling great all day long. I didn’t think the break had big chance of going for stage win, but we decided to go in order to get a head start in the last climb so I could play my chances in the final. I knew the stage was super hard, and I knew that if we went at a high pace all day I was in a good place to go for victory. Ben [O’Connor] did a great job on the last climb. I felt so good at the bottom and I just waited for the steep part. Towards the top, I didn’t feel great anymore, but I wanted to give it a try. I can’t say is a childhood dream. But one and a half years ago I couldn’t imagine I’d be in this position now.”
