Raincoats were of no use in the downpour

“Since the race officials neutralized the last 3km in order to minimize the risks of crashing, we took it easy in the finale. Our priority is to help Alberto achieve a success in the GC so we didn’t even let Bennati go into the high-speed sprinting. We had to make sure that Alberto was kept out of trouble and made it to finish in one piece,” Roman revealed.The rainy conditions made the stage very difficult for the riders, Contador described the last 70km as riding “under the deluge”. “It began pouring down with 40km to go. The rain was so heavy that the raincoats were completely useless and we were soaked through,” Roman described.He is aware of the fact that the weekend stages will be crucial. “For this reason, we didn’t take any unnecessary risk in the team time trial. Of course, it would have been better if we had been by10 seconds faster but I don’t think that this gap will play a major part in the general standings,” he added.