"[To climb Aubisque and the Tourmalet with the polka-dot jersey] is an honour and a responsibility. It's going to be difficult to hold on to it. If we have the strength, we'll try to be in the breakaway to defend it, but it's going to be difficult. This weekend is very tough and there's a lot at stake. We'll fight for it. You never know, we'll go day by day. You can't do a lot of maths about what's coming next week, so we'll keep fighting day by day [even if I lose the jersey]. Today we had a relatively quiet day. Although we rode fast, there wasn't much wind and it was headwind, so there wasn't too much tension compared to what it could have been."
