Vuelta a Espana: Stage 13 finish line quotes

Matteo Trentin (Quick-Step Floors – stage winner)

(Was the stage suited to you perfectly?) No - to be honest not at all. Actually on paper it looked less hard, especially from 3 to 2km to the finish. But we decided to go for it full, the whole team, except of course for de la Cruz. The guys were incredible, it was amazing. Everbody did his job and gave everything they had, 100 per cent. When the team is like this you have to finish off the work they do.

It’s amazing, because I came in this race with confidence but I never expected something like this. Even for the team the Vuelta is not finished, we are betting for more.

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Niki Terpstra (Quick-Step Floors)

It was almost exactly as we planned. We had to control the whole day because Matteo has been riding so well at this Vuelta. He was also the top favourite. The guys did an amazing job to control it. In the final, it was pretty hard with the steep climb. I was there until 3km. Matteo was still there with the guys at the front and in the end he did it. It’s amazing how Matteo finished the job, because you can have a strong team but you have to finish it. He’s extremely strong.

He showed how strong he was so it also gives us confidence to do our best to bring him into a good position. If you have doubts about your captain then you don’t give 110 per cent but we all did. This was a team effort and he finished the job.

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