Alessandro Covi (ITA/UAE), winner of the stage: “I came to the Giro above all to help Joao Almeida who unfortunately retired. Today was a good opportunity, I attacked from afar because I’m not a pure climber. I had to get ahead before the last climb, the presence of Formolo in the breakaway helped me a lot. In the last climb, I defended myself as well as possible, I was not far from cramps. It’s fantastic, both for me and for the team, to win a stage on these legendary climbs.”
Domen Novak (SLO / Bahrain), 2nd on the stage: “The plan was to race for Mikel (Landa), after that I found myself in a position to win the stage. I regained time, a minute and a half, but Covi was still strong.
Mikel Landa (ESP / Landa), 3rd overall: “I suffered all day, I didn’t feel well. At the end, I couldn’t respond to Hindley’s attack, I preferred to manage. I saw that Carapaz was in trouble and I relied on him. The gaps are important before the time trial. Clearly the advantage goes to Hindley.”
Guillaume Martin (FRA / Cofidis), 14th overall: “I thought it was a stage that was going to be played out between the leaders of the general classification and I didn’t particularly try to take the breakaway. It was not necessarily a good calculation. You have to make bets sometimes and this was unfortunately not the right one. It’s a Giro that I ran a little backwards by not necessarily attacking in the best moments. At the time of the assessment, it is a Giro which is not up to my expectations.
