Good day bad day: Vuelta a España GC contenders said this after Saturday's mountain stage: 'I lose a few years of my life every time'

The 14th stage of the Vuelta a España didn’t seem, at first glance, to be one that would go down in history in terms of the general classification, but appearances can be deceiving. The heat is gradually taking its toll on the riders competing for a strong final result. Here’s what they had to say after the stage on the Sierra de la Pandera, which was won by breakaway rider Marco Brenner.

"I really have to thank the team so much, because as you've seen, you can't do this alone. I want to celebrate the victory with my teammates. It went exactly as we'd planned on the bus. There are always multiple scenarios, but we controlled the game just as we wanted to. In the end, this turned out to be the best plan,” he told Eurosport.

"In 2022, I lost another 30 seconds or so on this climb. Today was different. Fortunately, I managed to gain some time this time, even though it wasn't the right moment to go all out. Above all, I want to win this Vuelta. We have a rest day coming up that will be very important for recharging our batteries for the final week.”

"No matter how good you feel, if your legs won’t cooperate when it really counts, it’s not much use. That’s still the most important thing. Movistar made the final quite difficult. Given the heat over the past few days—and again today—I didn’t want to take too many risks. I mainly wanted to see how I felt and wait until the end. I’m super happy that I managed to gain a few seconds in the final stretch and that I’m clearly in good shape.”

"It's hard to say if my form is still improving. Fatigue is naturally building up, of course, and the heat makes it simply exhausting. But things are going well, and I'm satisfied. In hindsight, the final climb wasn't as bad as I thought; I had expected it to be even hotter," Gall told Eurosport.

"We came here to secure a spot on the podium, and that's still our goal. It was important to gain some time today with an eye toward the time trial—the next key event for the general classification. We still have a grueling week ahead of us with two tough mountain stages, so every second of lead counts."

"I have fond memories of this climb, but this year was, of course, very different from last time. My legs felt better, and I'm incredibly happy with the results so far. We’re now nearing the end of the second week. How do I feel going into this final week? Actually, pretty good. Yesterday I tried to recover as best I could. It’s a tough Vuelta, but I’m satisfied with how things are going with the team.”

"I feel like we're pretty evenly matched in terms of ability. Enric is riding very strongly, but we have a very tough week ahead of us. We have to take it one step at a time; there's still a long way to go until the end of this Vuelta," Carapaz told Eurosport.

"It was tough. There's really not much more to say about it—it was tough. There's not much you can do on a climb like this. Either you have the legs for it or you don't, and I didn't have the legs to keep up with them, so I had to set my own pace."

"Jakob Ormzel is, of course, one of the riders to watch, but there are still many riders in the general classification who are close behind me and whom I'm keeping an eye on. I wouldn't say there's one person in particular."

"Terrible. My tank is empty. But I think I'm only losing a few seconds to the ones who really matter, so it's actually a good way to limit the damage."

"It's awful. I lose a few years of my life every time, so there probably won't be much left of my marriage by the time I finally get married," the Dane added, offering another nice metaphor on TV2.