“I really have a hard time believing it, I don’t think it was premeditated at all, we just wanted to start the race on the right foot, I wanted to take the morning breakaway, I was really good all day, no stress, we take it day by day, we really wanted someone in front, we had Frank and Warren, we turned well, Frank left then behind I saw that in the peloton it was difficult with the heat, I trained a lot the last month for the heat and it was the first time I really had the benefits and when I saw that there was a minute I knew I could close but that’s it, it was very hard until the end, we had an incredible raid with Frank, I owe him a lot, this jersey is really shared.”
“Honestly, it’s a little early to realize it, I’ve had this first stage in the back of my mind for a very long time but beyond that there’s hope… I wanted to play it hard, I’m very lucky because that in the team we gave up on the general classification, I said either today I am in front and I try something or I lose 20 minutes and there I believe that now it is also my place to race like that and I’m very lucky that it succeeded.”
“I asked on the radio how Frank was feeling, if he felt the strongest in the breakaway, he told me “No, Frank is not bad but”, I said I’m attacking, I’m going. Warren went to get me an ice pack, a bottle, I said “go on I’m going”, I could see that everyone was suffering and it was my all-in, I didn’t know the roads but I had seen on the profile that it was the difficulty with the highest percentage in which I could make a difference and after that our goal was really to stay with Frank, it gave him a second life.”
On Frank Van Den Broek. “He’s huge, we knew it, it’s his first year as a pro, he won the Tour of Turkey, carefreeness does a lot of good, I also wanted to take advantage of it and what better scenario could we dream of than being two riders from the same team and giving it our all in the relays, it’s incredible that it worked out today.”
“Clearly, when I came to the Tour it was in a tunnel, there was the pressure of the general classification, the expectations etc and that ate away at me, I’m lucky that here as leader of the team I’m given all the freedom to go all out one day and to get back up completely the next day and do gruppetto, a bit like Thomas. I think that at 33, it’s never too late and it pays off with a bit of luck.”
“I had him (his son Angus on the phone), he didn’t believe it, he thought our secret goal was the polka dot jersey, that’s why I wanted to be in front today because I would have liked to bring it back to him and in fact here it is the jackpot so it’s fabulous.”
Does this victory call into question the decision to end his career? “No, on the contrary, I wanted to finish at the top, you know how it is, I suffered on a bike, there are some very good moments this year, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, this is a second very good moment, precisely, there you go it’s a sign, it’s a dream to wear the yellow jersey but as in Liège-Bastogne-Liège I had mourned a little, so there you go it’s a consecration and now it’s over.”
What does this yellow jersey represent? “An inaccessible object, an extraordinary jersey, honestly it crowns my journey in the Tour de France for so many years, it’s quite incredible, I have trouble describing it because I’ve had a lot of frustrations, Thomas knows what it’s like, when you race you’re there fighting every second, you’re not really yourself, I made the bike that I love today, with a great team it worked so you just have to enjoy it.”
