After today’s stage of Tour du Limousin, it was clear that Martin Elmiger defended his yellow jersey. He is happy by the help he has received from his teammates, but the Swiss knows that he hasn’t won yet.

“I must take my hat off for the whole team.  What they have done is wonderful.  It was not inevitable at all that I would end today in yellow.  Happily, I had even better legs today than I had on Wednesday.  So I was able to follow the attackers in that crazy final.  Now I can concentrate on the final stage.  It is always stressful and I’ll have to seal the deal.  Although I am a very experienced rider by now, and I have had the chance to defend race leads in the past, every situation is always different.  I know that I can count on the full support of the entire team.  We have everything to win now from the Tour du Limousin.”

Elmiger’s team-mate Sébastien Reichenbach earned himself a strong 10th place on today's stage, which was won by Matthieau Ladagnous (FDJ). Already having taken 4th at the recent Tour de l’Ain, Reichenbach was obviously showing promising form and was glad to capitalize on it.

 “Everything is going very well and I am satisfied with my sensations.  Today, we all worked really well to keep the yellow jersey on Martin’s shoulders.  This was no easy task.  There were many climbs, including the last one which had pitches up to 20% gradients and really steamrolled the pack.  In the early sections of the stage, Marco Bandiera, Stefan Denifl and Pirmin Lang controlled the front of the pack to keep the breakaway in check.  And then Thomas Löfkvist and I protected the yellow jersey into the finale.  Personally, I was well placed and managed to finish 10th without really having been trying for the win.  The most important thing was to keep the yellow jersey on the eve of the arrival in Limoges,” Reichenbach said.

Tour du Limousin ends tomorrow with a 178,8 km long stage from Bourganeuf to Limoges.