"I’m super happy. This time trial was quite a big question mark already in December for me. I wanted everything to be perfect and the team delivered.
I really wanted to go all out from start to finish, smashing the pedals as much as possible. I almost blew out in the end but I saw the time on the finish arch and it gave me an extra push because I saw I was gonna win.
Basically, it was all on instinct. I decided to go without radio because the tactics was all out from the start to the finish. I saw at the first time check I was 5 seconds in green. At the second one, the gap was a bit bigger so I knew I was on a good pace. I suffered a bit with 3 kilometres to go. I took a deep breath and recovered some power because I knew the last kick was super steep and I wanted to have somewhat good legs.
This was the biggest decision to make: which bike to ride today. Obviously, we race on the road bike most of the year, like 99% of the time. We did some calculations and I decided to be more comfortable, riding with the same bike as the last 12 stages, and it worked out for me.
So far, so good. We’re just a bit over halfway now and it’s still a long way to Paris but if we keep riding like this and don’t do any mistake, then we can be satisfied with this margin.
[Jonas Vingegaard] was good today. He will not give up and if he has good legs he will try everyday. I need to fight with good legs until the end. It’s still a big fight until Paris.
The team is here to defend the Yellow Jersey until Paris. If they feel good and there’s a chance for another stage win, we can go for it. But the main objective is to wake up good tomorrow and keep Yellow. It would be nice to win again but there’s no pressure on us."
