Pajares was the stage of my life, the best one I've ever done in any Tour of Spain. |
Psychologically, it was a difficult moment for me. I don't like riding in the peloton in the chasing peloton. That's not my game, ... But I held on, mainly out of respect for my team. I have not given up doing well in the Tour one day. But on the evidence of things, I have to begin questioning certain things. We will analyze all that this winter. |
Tactically, things worked out great today, ... The team was the key to victory today. I just finished off their work. |
The Colladiella is a very difficult mountain and we knew it, ... In strategic terms the stage went perfectly. I was conscious about the fact that I took great risks when I went downhill. But the point is that if you want something, you have to take your chances. |
The fall happened in the first ten riders in the pack, |
The key has been the time trial in Lloret, where the first part favoured me and there were no differences, but in the second, Menchov extracted time. Then, he defended itself very well in the mountains, though these climbs were not excessively hard and a strong guy can't be dropped. |
The stage characteristics weren’t for a climber, but it’s the last week of the Vuelta and strength is very important. A specialist like Plaza won, but I had the mentality to win. I almost won, it was so close. But I’m confident thinking of the future because of what happened today. |
The team has been working together very well in the last mountain stage, and I did not have any problem to control the race, ... There were attacks, but maybe [Stage 18] was easier for us. Still, three stages remain, but Madrid is closer every day, although we cannot relax. The stages that remain are already easier to control, and I will come to the time trial with a good cushion of time in my favour. |
The team's strategy of upping the pace on the climb proved very important and then I could take over to finish off their work. |
The time-trial will be very difficult, more than it seems. I think there may well be some huge time-gaps at the finish. But I'm not leaving the starting gate with the intention of losing the jersey. I'm going to defend it. |
The Tour of Spain is the race which has given me the most, but that doesn't mean I don't want to win abroad as well, |
There are many stages left on the race, but he made a strong impact, a morale blow to the rest. So far, Liberty and Heras have demonstrated superiority. |
There were many difficult stages to control the race like the one in the mountains of Madrid [stage 17] or Avila [stage 18], especially the Madrid stage. The advantage that we got in Pajares [stage 15] was important and this one is maybe the calmest week of the four Vueltas I achieved. |
There's still the stage to Lagos and that will be the key stage, because it's a hard climb and there you can't just follow the wheel. |
These 10 seconds do not mean anything; for me, they have the same value of the six second bonus Roberto achieved before. |