Several riders and sports directors spoke to the organizers before the start of stage 3 of the Vuelta a Espana. You can read their comments below.

°Marcus Burghardt (BMC) did not start. Involved in a crash in yesterday's stage 2,  the German rider called it quits with knee problems.

°Fernando Escartin (race director): "We'll surely have a bunch sprint today. Teams like Tinkoff Saxo and Giant Alpecin may try to raise the tempo on the climb to drop the other sprinters but there are still 82 km for them to make it back."

° Chris Froome (Team Sky): "We're pretty happy as a team. Nicolas was up there yesterday, so were Sergio, Mikel and myself.  As a first mountain finish  for the team we can be pretty happy. Myself personally I'm surprised how decent I felt after not racing since the Tour de France. We still have a lot to look for in this race. There was lots of marking each other in the last climb. I was not going to chase the front group with Nicolas Roche up the road and Alejandro was not going to chase with Quintana up the road. It was up to Katusha to do the job and they waited a little bit too much. But Joaquim Rodriguez looked in great form and he's going to be a contender in the weeks ahead. I told Nicolas (Roche) I needed to ride at my own speed to see how I'm feeling. I gave him the green light to go. We've got a great team, let's use the numbers."

° Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis): "I hurt my left thigh and knee by hitting the pedals  in the crash. I hope it will be alright today. I spent a rather good night. We'll see how it goes and how I manage with the two climbs of the day. I checked the first one because it's close to the hotel and then there's the first category one. The goal for a sprinter is always to win as early as possible to boost the confidence. After my crash in the Tour I took a little bit of rest and the form came back pretty quickly."

°Geoffrey Soupe (cofidis): "I completely stopped after the Tour but now I feel better. The form is here and we're going to give it our best shot for Nacer. The goal is to win one as early as possible as we did last year. When you do, the team relaxes and things become easier instantly."

°John Degenkolb (Giant Alpecin): "The form is good and today is a good chance on a course that suits me. Of course, it's always the idea to win early in a grand Tour. The green jersey is very difficult to take in the Vuelta, last year I was lucky I could win it. For now, the number one ambition is a stage win. Normally, my last lead-out man on this Vuelta should usually be Luka Mezgec.

°Stefano Zanini (Astana team director): "I wish to apologize to the Astana team and staff, to the organisers and the fans. I'm really sorry about what happened. Of course, Vincenzo Nibali and Alexandre Shefer join me in this apology. All this happened after a crash provoked by a rider who is used to such behaviour. Fo Vincenzo, it was a bad day and bad year. He certainly did not expect to be back home so soon. The message I tried to pass over to the team was to remain focused, with Aru, Landa, Luis Leon-Sanchez as well as Vanotti or Cataldo to help them, we have a very strong team."

° Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory): "I had a stomach bug and it came back on the day of the first stage. I could not feed for a whole day. I can now eat again but I'm a little bit afraid of the heat and the climbs today."

°Dirk De Mol (Trek Factory): "It's all for Danny Van Poppel today. It's a stage that suits him perfectly. In case he doesn't feel well, we also have Jasper Stuyven who can try and compete in the final sprint."