Tom Dumoulin has surprised everybody by going into the first rest day at the Vuelta a Espana as race leader. Both he and teammate John Degenkolb spoke about their race so far at a press conference in Andorra.

"I am doing well. Yesterday we had a long transfer to the hotel, so we got to bed late. Today is an easy day. We went for a short ride to Andorra, which was nice," Dumoulin said.

"I am very satisfied with the course of the race so far, as it has turned out far above my expectations. Especially my stage win was unbelievable and very special for me. Also the red jersey is great and a really nice bonus. If someone would have told me two weeks ago that I would win a stage with an uphill finish and have the leader’s jersey on the first rest day, I would have said he was insane.

"Tomorrow we will have the hardest stage of this Vuelta, and at the finish we will know more. Normally I would say that it is too much for me, but stage 9 was also not typical, so we will see. We showed yesterday and the days before yesterday that we have a strong team that takes responsibility as well, and we can be proud of that. We will fight for it and go full gas to the finish line, and then we can draw conclusions."

Degenkolb has had a frustrating race as he has twice been second.

"I am doing fine at the moment, enjoying the rest day and trying to recover and relax as much as possible. We have had a nice Vuelta so far with the success of Tom and the team, and spirits are really good," he said.

"I’m a bit sad that my stage victory is still missing. I was really close a few times, but I am confident that the win will come. I am feeling better and better, which is also a good sign ahead of next month’s world championships. 

"Now a lot of climbing is coming up, so I’ll just have to survive. After that there will be some sprint opportunities as well, and we hope to win more stages. There will be opportunities until the closing stage in Madrid, which we won last year."

"We can look back proudly on the performance of the team so far. Especially having the red jersey in the team on the first rest day is really unexpected but fantastic. Every day we have competed for the stage victory, and we were close several times. After winning stage 9 we felt a lot of relief and joy," coach Addy Engels said.

"Tom is doing great. For him to be in the lead at this point in a Grand Tour is outstanding. Also, seeing him work to bring back the breakaway yesterday to help John in the sprint was classy.

"Tomorrow’s stage is hard to predict, as it cannot be compared to the stages we’ve had so far. We don’t have the team to control the race on the climbs, and we’ll have to wait and see how Tom can hold on in the GC fight. The results so far give us confidence, and we will see how the race develops in the second week."