Race quotes from Chris Froome after taking red

VUELTA A ESPANA - 29 August 2011

Stage ten – 47km time trial around Salamanca

STAGE RESULT

1. Tony Martin  - HTC–Highroad (55m 54s)

2. Chris Froome  - Team Sky (+59s)

3. Bradley Wiggins - Team Sky (+1m22s)

OVERALL STANDINGS

1. Chris Froome - Team Sky (38h 09m 13s)

2. Jakob Fuglsang - Leopard Trek (+12s)

3. Bradley Wiggins - Team Sky (+20s)

Team Sky's Chris Froome produced the time trial performance of his life to take the leader's red jersey at the Vuelta a Espana.

The Kenyan-born Briton finished second on the stage behind Tony Martin (HTC-Highroad) in the 47 kilometres time trial around Salamanca and it was good enough to see him vault up from 14th to top of the overall standings.

He leads by 12 seconds from Jakob Fuglsang (Leopard-Trek), with Team Sky team-mate Bradley Wiggins third on the day and up to third overall, 20 seconds behind Froome.

Chris Froome, Team Sky Rider:

"It’s not really sunk in yet, it’s still a bit unreal. I didn’t expect to do that today. I thought maybe I’d try and stay in contention or at least be up there close to Bradley but never expected this.

"I'm over the moon, I think I just had a fantastic day and somehow I've ended up in the leader's jersey - it's a dream come true.

"I think it was the updates from Sports Director Marcus Ljungqvist on the radio which kept me going. To be honest I felt pretty rough out there; I was hurting from yesterday’s effort and just felt like I wasn’t really going that fast.

"What really helped was Marcus in the team car edging me on, saying ‘you’re doing great’, ‘you’ve got a really good time’, ‘just keep going like you are’ and so on. It was fantastic to have that information and encouragement – at least I knew I wasn’t doing too badly!

On the race as a whole, Froome added: "It’s gone really well, we’ve just been trying to limit Brad’s losses every day and try and keep him in contention until the time trial.

"It went especially well yesterday on stage nine which was also a bit of a surprise because we hadn’t planned to try and make a difference like that. We went into the stage just trying to keep as close to other GC guys as possible but when we got into the crosswinds up on the mountain with about 4k to go we were in the perfect position to put the hammer down and really go. We just did it naturally and it worked out.

"The other riders have been doing a brilliant job looking after us until the final and the staff have been really, really supportive. It’s been great - the environment and atmosphere in the team is just fantastic."

Steven de Jongh, Team Sky Sports Director:

"It was a really good performance from Froomey of course and also Bradley.

"Apart from Tony Martin they put time on absolutely everyone else, including all the other GC contenders, so we’re really happy with the result.

"It was a big surprise that Froomey beat Bradley but I’d say he did the time trial of his life today.

"We must also not forget that Bradley broke his collarbone at the Tour de France and had an operation so it’s amazing to be performing at this level so soon afterwards. He's been great throughout the race and it was another tremendous effort from him today."