After a bad start to the race, Romain Bardet (Ag2r) continued his excellent comeback in the Tour de France when he took the mountains jersey and moved into 9th overall after today's stage.

"First of all, I did not plan to clalculate how many points I would precisely need in the king of the mountain classification," he said. "I just wanted to finish this stage among the best riders. Luckily, I earned the polka-dot jersey and I am going to wear it on the Alpe d'Huez stage. It is incredible, I will enjoy this moment for sure. Sometimes it is possible to achieve your goals without any particular strategy.

"This is the first day I did everything for the mountains classification . I had to let Joaquim Rodriguez go on the first climb, the Col de Chaussy. Anyway, I did not have the legs to do better. I crested the summit in the top ten. Then I made ​​the descent to the bottom and Rodriguez marked me closely. I wanted to score points on the HC climb (Col de la Croix de Fer) and rely on my consistency for a good result in La Toussuire where points were doubled.

"I had a problem on the descent from Croix de Fer. The large chainring didn't work. I do not know why, but I could change bike without damage. Even if I had kept my lead before LaToussuire, it would have changed nothing with the battle we had.

"It's pretty cool to wear the polka dot jersey for climbing L'Alpe d'Huez tomorrow. It was my goal this morning but I didn't manage to make the first move. I've had to deal with a lot of emotions since I won yesterday. I've had to give it all to get this fifth place today. It's gonna be hard to keep the jersey tomorrow but I'm ready to bury myself. I didn't come to the Tour with that goal but I'll go for it now.

"Tomorrow's climb of Col de la Croix de Fer will be an acid test. Then, he Alpe d'Huez brings double amount of points but It will be hard to beat Froome. Nevertheless, I refuse to concede defeat.

"This jersey is very unexpected. I welcome it with great joy. I did not think that I would wear it. To have 24 hours before  Paris is something great. Nothing is done but I enjoy what happens to me, even if I don't have it tomorrow evening.

"It will be decided with  the head because everyone is exhausted. It's a jersey that thrills the French public. We must use this enthusiasm to do ot. It does not depend only on me because the battle for the yellow jersey will take place. Today, Froome was trying to sprint behind me. We feel that the jersey interests him. It will be difficult for me."

"To be honest, we took the king of the mountain points on the Glandon climb but our main priority was the general classification," sports director Julien Jurdie said. "Romain moved up to 9th overall which is a great performance. The polka-dot jersey is the icing on the cake. We are not going to be too optimistic because tomorrow's winner will earn 50 points. Clearly, it will be tense but nothing is decided yet. From now on, the polka-dot jersey becomes our priority and every point counts."