It's really fantastic. I can't believe it. It's a dream for me. It has been a dream three weeks. Last night I was discussing it with Michael [Matthews] and we never would have expected that we could have the polka-dot and the green jersey and to win two stages for him and one for me, now two. It's just unbelievable.
I was waiting to see how it went. I wanted to take some time on [Alberto] Contador to maybe win one spot. I attacked and we came to [Bauke] Mollema and I heard him say 'slower' to Mollema when he was pulling, and I passed him and I made my pace to the top. In the last kilometres, I saw Atapuma ahead. I was behind him in the Tour de Suisse and I closed the gap in the last climb, and today I made it. It's just crazy.
It will take a few days to sink in, but at the moment I am still in the sky.
[Will you try the Tour for GC soon?]
Yeah. First I enjoy the moment, and I will see later for coming back here to race for the GC. But first I will enjoy my jersey on the Champs Elysees, but I can make a plan for next year.
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I had better legs today. For sure, it's still going to be difficult. You can never say I've definitely got this. We've still got to be careful, but much better than yesterday. I was trying to do my own ride and keep my own rhythm. I think that's really important on a climb like this. I gave it everything, so I'm happy.
It was a difficult day. I had much better luck than yesterday, so I have to feel happy. I still have the white jersey, which was my goal at the start, so I'm happy. I'm fully confident that I'll have it until Paris. You never know what can happen; there are still difficult stages to come. But I'm much more comfortable now.
It was very, very hard stage with the climb to the finish, I have to congratulate Warren Barguil on his win. I'm happy with today. My teammates did a very good job in the finale to control the break. I tried to drop Uran and Bardet but it was virtually impossible today.
I'm happy to have got through the Alps this year without a problem. They've always been more difficult for me. Now we'll see what happens in the time trial in Marseille. I'll do my best to try to win the stage and ride for the jersey. I've already seen the time trial course. It's a very fast 22km course. I'll do my maximum for sure.
Of course it would have been nice to take a bit of time, but all in all I'm pretty happy with that. Two seconds over Rigoberto Uran, who I think will be my main rival in the time trial, I'm pretty happy with that. It's great having the numbers there to control things and having that card to play with Mikel Landa. I tried to give it a dig behind and I thought that I had a gap, but it looks like Rigoberto Uran brought it back.
They've both ridden a very impressive race up until now. Romain Bardet taking the bonus seconds today, he can be pretty happy with that. It's all still to race for in the time trial in Marseille. It's still close. There's still everything to race for. If everything goes well, I fancy my chances against the other guys in the time trial but it's still very close.
Darwin Atapuma (UAE Team Emirates) - Attacked on the Izoard, 2nd on stage
I really would have liked to win, for myself, for the team, for the sponsors and for the Colombian people, all the people in Colombia that were watching the stage. It is independence day for us today and we really tried right up to the final. We gave it everything and think that the other riders did really well. When you're so close it's a little sad, but I think that I have to be happy with what I've achieved.
To finish ahead of Chris [Froome], who is almost the champion of the Tour, for me it's almost like a victory. It's quite special.
Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) - Currently in green jersey; Barguil's roommate at the Tour
It's truly incredible, for Warren and for the team. Now four stage wins in this Tour de France, and I think we just sealed both jerseys. So in one bedroom in our hotel we have four stage wins and two jerseys in the one room.
It's just such a compliment to all the hard work this team has done, and they deserve every bit of it. We've worked so hard for this, and now for it all to come true, all our dreams to come true in this one Tour de France, it's really special.
[The green jersey] is something I've dreamed about since I started cycling, basically, watching guys like Robbie [McEwen] winning the green, and all the other Australians: Cookie winning the green, Stewie winning the green. It's just been something that I've looked up to these guys winning this, and now it's my opportunity to go for it. I took that opportunity with both hands.
