John Degenkolb

„I was suffering on the climbs when Cannondale put the hammer down, they rode hard. But I hung on and felt good after that. The boys did a great job to keep me out of the wind and then bring me into a good position for the sprint but at the end Sagan was just too strong. Second place isn’t a nice place to finish but when it is the Tour de France you have to be happy with that. It shows I have prepared well and I will hopefully have another opportunity to go for the win.“

Tom Dumoulin

„In the beginning we thought Cannondale would try it and they did. They took the initiative and made it a very hard race.  I sat behind Marcel on the hills and after he was dropped I knew it would be tough for them to get back up to the first group and when they weren’t getting closer I knew we would be sprinting for John. It is a big advantage that we can play the John card when Marcel is dropped. We had only three men left so we knew it would be a small sprint train however we did a good job but came to the front too early. Luckily John jumped on the right wheel to sprint but unfortunately he didn’t win. In the end it was a good day.“

Christian Guiberteau