With Nacer Bouhanni out of the race, Cofidis are forced to ride aggressively in the Vuelta a Espana and that's what they did with Yoann Bagot in today's stage.

"I believed in our chances when we were 5:50 up at the start but when I head that the Katusha were chasing, I knew it would be difficult," he said. "We climbed the first passage full gas. I didn't really know the gaps so I was hoping that we could make some time up and that the peloton had given up. But when I saw we were only 1:15 up one kilometre before the climb, I realized it would be complicated. I wanted to get to the bottom with a little lead to see what I could do. But when I looked back, they were all there.

"Mentally I'm fine. My role was to protect Nacer and that was fine by me. Since he crashed, it's a different ballgame. I can go in the breaks. That's what I did today."