Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): “Motivation has been high since before the Vuelta to be honest. One of my key goals is to be on a team that wins a Grand Tour, and after watching Joao [Almeida] not finish the Tour and come to the Vuelta, I knew he had a really good shape. This sort of stage is his bread and butter: hard all day, and then it’s just brute strength at the end. I’m just so proud to be a part of setting that up for him. Winning on Angliru, that’s incredible. He never says he feels really good, even when he’s flying. He’s like: ‘Oh, I’ve felt better, you know…’ It was part of the plan to go a little bit early on the second last climb. Then, the technical descent afterwards is always tricky. And then we set him up as hard as we could into the steep section, and then let the man do the work. Personally, it would be fantastic to win the polka-dot jersey, but the bigger picture is the red jersey. If I have to give it up for Joao, it’s a pleasure.”
