Tom Danielson celebrated his eighth-place Vuelta a España finish on Monday night the best way he could think of: eating pizza.

For the past three weeks, the 27-year-old has been on team-issued steak dinners each night while racing his way through the 21-stage Vuelta. The race ended Sunday in Madrid with Danielson in eighth overall, the third-best Vuelta finish by an American in the Spanish grand tour (Levi Leipheimer was third in 2001 and Lance Armstrong was fourth in 1998).

Danielson said he can’t stop smiling since making it through his first grand tour of his budding career. VeloNews European correspondent Andrew Hood spoke with Danielson on Monday evening to reflect on the Vuelta. Here are excerpts from the interview:

VeloNews.com: How did it feel to roll into Madrid?Tom Danielson: The key word is happy. It was an awesome, incredible experience. I’ve obviously never ridden a last stage of a grand tour, so for me it was emotional experience. A lot of things went through my mind. All the hard work, the training, all the ups and downs you experience in the race, all the battles you had, you remember all that in the last day. Not just me, but every rider.

VN.com: Discovery Channel arrived in Madrid with just four riders …TD: The team was great. There were four of us, a strong four. For me it was very special moment of my career. It was great to be around Johan (Bruyneel) and Dirk (Demol), who believed a lot in me, and taught me to believe in myself. Michael (Barry), from the training before the race, has been with me every step of the way. We put a lot of blood, sweet and tears in training for this race, doing the big 6-7-8-hour rides. It was special to do the race like that with him. Benjamin (Noval) and Stijn (Devolder) were there.

VN.com: How did you celebrate the end of the race?TD: The celebration was on the bike. When you get off the bike, everyone has been away from their family for a month, so it’s important they get home. The staff flies home, the celebration at the end wasn’t so much. The real celebration was coming across the line in Madrid. You grow a lot with your team. When you grow through a big event like this, you get so much closer to them. It’s like fighting a war. You all have to band together to survive and come out on top.

VN.com: How big is the top 10, it’s somewhat unexpected, no?TD: It’s more than mission accomplished. The only goal was to finish the race. From what I heard the Vuelta, it was crazy hard, super hard, one of the craziest there is in terms of speed and attrition. Paolo Savoldelli entertained us every night at the Vuelta a Pais Vasco about how he never wanted to go back. You hear the stories, but how bad can it be? Then when you’re in the race, then you realize it’s even harder than you could have dreamed. They didn’t expect me to ride for overall placing. As the race went on, I figured the best way to learn was to put myself in position instead of riding at the back. I’ve done that for the past year, so I wanted to learn how to fight with the best. For sure, I used a lot of energy with my inexperience in the first week. The last week was very nerve-wracking for me. I was in the top 10, then Johan decided it was the goal to maintain that position. I like that pressure. I told myself to defend this position like I was going to defend the yellow jersey. I put myself into the mind set to fight to the end. That mentality is what it takes to be a good racer. If you don’t know how to fight when the going gets tough, that’s the key to a three-week racer.

VN.com: You made it through a few hard days, you must take something positive out of that?TD: Everyone has a bad day in a three week race, a few ups and downs. I had a stomach virus. My immune system was run down because I was fighting for position. That was big for me to get through those stages. In the last week, I had a really bad day (stage 17). I will always remember that day. Something just shut down in my body. I think I made some mistakes by not eating and drink enough. I felt good in the beginning and it was a really fast day. When I got to the last climb, I was cramping. I was completely empty. Every thing was finished in my body. At that put, I could have sat up, I’ve had a good Vuelta so far and I am in so much pain now, but Johan was behind me to encourage me. Michael and Benjamin got me into the climb in good position, Stijn was in the breakaway ahead and he stopped and helped me chase back. I lost some time top 5, but didn’t lose that much time in relation to the top 6-12 riders. They all kept me calm in that moment. I learned to keep fighting even when things were not going you’re way. Now I know I can get through a bad situation. The day after I was able to recover, and that was another big victory. This has been very special week.

VN.com: Finishing in the top 10 must be a big confirmation for you, at least knowing that you’re capable of doing it after so much hype in the media?TD: It’s not so important to confirm anything to the media. It’s more to myself and to my team. We’ve all worked hard as a team, it’s been a great experience. We’ve accomplished a lot as a team this year. For me, finally being able to do a grand tour, it’s a confirmation to myself. No. 1, I’m on a fantastic team and I know this is where I want to be to develop my career. If I keep working, I can improve and go places.

VN.com: What does it bode for your future, your motivation?TD: I’m super excited about the future. I was telling some friends, sometimes when you learn you can do something, it translates not just in your confidence, but in everything. When you train, when you’re on your bike, when you’re eating, sleeping, you do everything a little better because you believe in yourself more. That’s half the battle, that’s the mind. It’s unbelievably hard. It was way harder than I thought it was going to be. It’s like this incredible war you fight and you have to be strong every day. Everything I’ve learned I’m going to take into the off-season with a lot of motivation.

VN.com: What’s next?TD: I’m finished. I’m officially on vacation. I started racing with Malaysia. I’ve done quite a few races, 80-90 days of racing this year. It’s not been so hard. I’ve been really happy with the team this year. Every race I’ve been given new goals and new objectives, so it’s nice to analyze the race with Johan, the other directors and teammates, and talk about what I need to work on. It really makes the year fly by. With the knee injury, had to quickly analyze the problem, because I wanted to come back stronger and never have it a problem again. I didn’t have any problems during the Vuelta. I did some hard races before that put it under a lot of stress on it, so I knew I had a lot of confidence in my knee.