September 3: Feeling stronger, but playing the team role

Hi there Cyclingnews readers,

Well, I was stronger today than in the other mountain stages, that is for sure. I was with the first guys, but Johan asked me to wait for Janez. That is what I had to do. I lost time the other day…I still don’t know why that happened, but my legs are better now. Today I was easy on the back of Marchante when Sastre attacked. Those guys were going across to Vino and Kashechkin and I was there. But when your teammate is in the gold jersey, I guess that is what you have to do…

I hope I can do something later in the race. It seems I am back to where I should have been. I can’t explain why I was so bad in the first few days, but today I felt good.

It is very disappointing the way things turned out earlier on in the race. I am happy for Janez, the way things turned out for him [taking gold] but I am disappointed that I had that bad day, and also lost a bit of time on the first mountain stage. I would like to make a good Vuelta so we will see.

As regards my plans from this point on, I will have to listen to what Johan says and see what I can do. I would love to win a stage. I will try, but first I would like to climb with the best guys. Today I felt like I could have…if you watched the stage on TV, you could see that I could have.

Anyway, there are two time trials and three mountain stages left, so we will see…

Talk to you after the rest day,

Hasta luego,

Tom

Stage 9 results