Vuelta a España stage 5 reactions: Alejandro Valverde, Nairo Quintana, Jetse Bol, Nicolas Roche
Aug 29 2019 04:54 am CET
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Ángel Madrazo took the victory of the fifth stage of the Vuelta a España after continuously fighting to stay in the front. Alejandro Valverde -who climbed eight positions in GC, Nairo Quintana -who lost one place, Jetse Bol -one of the members of the breakaway, and Nicolas Roche - the leader of the General Classification until the end of this stage, shared their opinions about the day.
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar)
"It wasn’t a failure by Nairo. He remains strong and he lost time today, but it wasn’t so much. A failure would be losing five minutes if you ask me for an example. It was a climb that suited his characteristics well, but you’re not at the same level every single day. I tried to keep pushing, trying not to let ‘Superman’ go too far. López was already the biggest favourite and confirmed it today. I had legs today, but it doesn’t mean anything – we continue to go day-by-day, and Nairo, of course, remains our GC contender for the race."
Nairo Quintana (Movistar)
"Alejandro was strong and we had already talked between ourselves that we had to respect whoever was feeling the strongest of the two. Happily, I didn’t lose too much time, and I hope to get my best legs back – I just didn’t feel great today. As soon as I get back to my previous form, I’ll for sure try to take advantage. I tried to defend myself today, I just lacked a bit of power. After the Tour de France, you don’t know how your body will react. I’ve been racing on full steam since the start of the season, and it’s normal that there are some wear and tear at this point of the year."
Jetse Bol (Burgos BH)
"It feels really good. I’m not going to lie: I wanted to win myself. But, when a teammate wins, and it happens the way it did, it just feels incredible. Herrada was getting nervous and we knew we had to make use of that. In the end, it worked out great. Madrazo was dropping and coming back the whole time but, when he attacked, he was gone for good. It was impressive. I didn’t bother thinking whether Herrada was stronger than us or not. I focused on following his wheel and on how to finish the breakaway… and Madrazo was perfect at that!"
Nicolas Roche (Sunweb)
"I did go deep, I was really trying to limit my loss and pace myself, but I was really in the hurt box. I just did my own climb and I think I did a good climb, the others just did it better, nothing to be ashamed of. I’m happy because I’m in good condition, Wilco is not too far behind and we have two-and-a-half weeks to fight for a good GC place."
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NAIRO QUINTANA
JETSE BOL
NICOLAS ROCHE
LA VUELTA CICLISTA A ESPAñA
