Despite winning the stage to La Toussuire yesterday, Vincenzo Nibali isn’t too confident he can snatch third place from Movistar’s Alejandro Valverde, who he says he has never seen so stong.

“I saw that everyone was marking me, above all the Movistar guys. I had never seen Alejandro Valverde in such form, he is stronger than ever,” he told Mundo Deportivo after stage 18.

Of course Nibali would win the next day and move up on GC, taking back over two minutes on Valverde and Contador.

It is not clear if Nibali made the comments in an implying way, considering Valverde was banned for his involvement in Operacion Puerto in 2006. Before the Tour, Nibali made a similar comment about Nairo Quintana, implying the Colombian spends more time training in Colombia than in Europe because he is tested less there.