"It's a big milestone in my career" - Kevin Vauquelin heads towards the second rest day in top-5

The fairy tale of Kevin Vauquelin at this Tour continues as the hero of home crowds rounded off the top-10 in today's queen stage to Superbagneres. With the abandon of Remco Evenepoel in mind, the leader of Arkéa - B&B Hotels returns to 5th spot in the general classification.

"I had pretty good legs throughout the stage," Vauquelin told media at the finish line. Results might not indicate that, but the 10th place on the day is an acceptable outcome for the Frenchman: "The pace at the end was a bit tough for me so I preferred to climb at my own pace and I fought until the end."

Except for the battle at the front, the spectators were left in a mist regarding how the battle for places of honor went down. And that was not really different for riders themselves. "With the fog, I couldn't see anything so I gave everything I had. I said I would give everything and that's what I did. I don't think I lost too much time to some of my rivals, so that's pretty good."

Regardless a great experience for the young climber who's giving it his first real shot at riding GC at such level. "It was probably one of the biggest stages of the Tour and to be able to be there with 5,000 meters of elevation gain, I would never have bet on that at the beginning of the year, so it's all positive," he explained.

And how does it feel to go all out for three weeks straight? "What doesn't reassure me is that you have to push yourself all the time, it's really hard," he continues. "But I'm honestly happy with my level today. Because I'm going from day to day, and ultimately my legs are still there. In any case, I'm managing to not be too far from the leading group, so it's a big milestone in my career."

Despite today Vauquelin lost some time, he actually moves up to 5th overall, only 2:28 shy of the podium. Florian Lipowitz also happens to be the Frenchman's rival in youth classification, just as is the case with 4th overall Oscar Onley.

"I think I'm still in the game, there's one week left. I'll see how I recover, but no matter what happens next week, whether I explode, make a gruppetto or even win a stage... my Tour is a success. And our team's too. We've all worked hard, and the work is paying off, so it's great. What more can you really ask for?" he concludes.