"This was for sure a masterpiece in teamwork. I was suffering a lot on the last climb. Quinn [Simmons] and Mathias [Vacek] were incredible at pacing me so we didn’t lose too much time ahead of the summit. Then they worked like machines from there to the finish. What a team effort and what a team win today.
I had a good talk with our team manager [Luca Guercilena] before the race. He told me to win a stage for him, preferably early in the race, and we knew this could be a good day for me. So I would say this win is for Luca and for all the good years we had together. I am really thankful for everything he has done for me. And I want to point out that he put some pressure on me to win today, and that was nice of him.
We just have to live with the heat, and do what you can to cool down. Luckily, the cars in the breakaway are closer to us than in the bunch, and that makes things easier. When we are talking about team effort, we are not talking of riders only - there are many people of our team on the roadside, waiting to give bottles and ice sockets to help us deal with the heat. In this regard, it also helps to have a good team.
I am in the green jersey now, and that’s great. It would have been nice to win the intermediate sprint too, but at least I’m picking 50 points at the finish line… so it’s a really good day on that front too."
