We have to keep on fighting without Ivan

Today´s rest day was not completely pleasant for the Tinkoff-Saxo riders. Their Italian teammate Ivan Basso was forced to leave Tour de France after revealing that he has been diagnosed with testicular cancer.

“Naturally, we all feel really sad about it but health comes always first and the most important thing is that Ivan quickly recovers. I believe that he will make it because doctors discovered his illness soon enough. We will miss him here but we have to hang together and fight for him to achieve our goal, which is Alberto´s yellow jersey,” said Roman.

His team role will remain the same even after Basso´s withdrawal. “It is still true that the last man to stay with Alberto will be Majka but we will see how we perform. Only Rafa will not be enough and it would be an ideal scenario if there were more of us with him in the mountains,” said Roman.

“Up until now, we have avoided all the mishaps and we have come unscathed from the first nine days. I always try to ride next to Alberto so that he could have more space around himself.” Contador sits slightly over one minute behind Froome. “Some might say that it is a big gap but with the mountains that are still to come it is nothing. The race is far from being over and we have two difficult weeks ahead of us,” added Roman.