Joaquím Rodriguez (Katusha) continued his late burst of form in the Tour de France as he finished 5th on the queen stage today as stage 18 finished on the famous L’Alpe d’Huez ascent.

"I'm in a great moment,” said the leader of Katusha Team. “I think finally I'm in a brilliant shape. I worked a lot in order to get ready for this Tour de France: I don't think I'm going to win it anymore, because Chris Froome is doing a great job and deserves it, but the podium is closer and it would be great to take it. To tell the truth, I think my standard is this one, as I proved during last season too, not the standard I showed during the first week. I wish I had been in this shape in the Pyrenees; probably my gap wouldn't have been so big. Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow there will be two more demanding stages: my team and I know them very well, we will try to do something and attack for sure."

In the general classification Rodriguez moved up to 5th overall, 05’58” behind race leader Chris Froome (Sky) but just 14 seconds behind Roman Kreuziger in 4th position and 26 seconds behind Nairo Quintana who currently occupies the lowest spot on the podium.