Quotes
Stage 8
16| Marlen REUSSER
Marlen Reusser: "It’s crazy"
"I've been working all week and I'm quite tired, so I'm very happy with this result. I was aiming for this time. I'm super happy there's a timer, I think it's good for the Tour. And to be honest, I'm a bit in shock at our accomplishments. We knew how strong we are coming here. But to conclude like this is crazy.
I am super happy that my work for the team has paid off and that it was seen. Sometimes, you do a lot, and it’s not visible. Going full gas for myself and winning is important for me and it makes it nicer. We are friends with Demi [Vollering] and...
Stage 8
14| Lotte KOPECKY
Lotte Kopecky: "I surprised myself quite a lot"
"I surprised myself quite a lot, especially yesterday. I’ve been one of the best sprinters, one of the best climbers, a good time-trialist… This Tour was just amazing for me! It’s not how I approached it but everything went really good. It’s really nice to be 2nd and to also have an amazing team around me. I didn’t think about it before the Tour so I had nothing to lose today, I just stayed relax and I tried to give everything I had left.
Trying to become a GC rider and to win the Tour is not something on my mind at the moment. I’m...
Stage 8
11| Demi VOLLERING
Demi Vollering: "It’s amazing what we did"
"I still haven’t had time to realise. Yesterday, I arrived at the hotel at 11:30, we had a very quick massage, shower and off to bed. But then, I couldn’t sleep so I thought about things and I realised a little bit… This morning, I was a bit too relaxed when I woke up and then I reminded myself I still had the goal to do a good time trial.
Yesterday, I just focused on my own effort, and when Annemiek [van Vleuten] crossed the line, I was happy with the gap. I didn’t want ti to be too close before the time trial, I didn’t know if I could...
Stage 8
21| Katarzyna NIEWIADOMA
Kasia Niewiadoma: "The Tourmalet gave me an amazing feeling"
"It feels amazing to climb again on the podium of the Tour de France. It was a goal of ours. We lost the 2nd place by so little but we have the polka-dot jersey and that’s an extra-bonus. We always kept in mind that we wanted to take every opportunity, for the stages, for the jerseys… So it’s very nice to be in the place I’m in right now, especially after the very hard last two days. The Tourmalet gave me an amazing feeling.
The team has changed this year with Mag [Magnus Bäckstedt, the sports manager] and a lot of new young riders. They...
Stage 8
191| Cedrine KERBAOL
Cédrine Kerbaol: "I am the first French to win a jersey"
"The whole team is happy, I’m happy, it’s a success! I am the first French woman to win a jersey in the Tour de France, that's something. Today, I was hoping to do better but I made do with what I had left. The legs were really tired. It wasn't terrible, but I did what needed to be done. I have a lot of relatives, friends who are there… It was a great week."
Stage 8
113| Yara KASTELIJN
Yara Kastelijn: "I still don’t realise"
"I’m really proud to be on the podium today. My crash from two days ago was harder than expected. I felt really bad yesterday and it was a bit like that in the TT as well. We fought through it and I’m proud to win the Super Combativity award. This one is for the team. The stage win was my first pro victory. I still don’t really realise it. In the Tour, you go from one day to the other and you have to stay focused. Tomorrow I’ll go home and then I will realise how strong this was and how cool this is. I have a criterium in the Netherlands and then...
Stage 7
191| Cedrine KERBAOL
Cédrine Kerbaol : "I built confidence in myself"
"It’s the stage I was waiting for, but also the stage I feared. My direct rival [Ella Wyllie] was very, very strong on the climbs today. But I built confidence in myselfand I figured: ‘Do as you always do, find your pace like in time trial and you’ll come back.’ The third time she attacked, she put a harder pace. I tried to be not too far. I had a lead of 2’45’’, I tried to control my losses, and I still have 2 minutes."
Stage 7
21| Katarzyna NIEWIADOMA
Kasia Niewiadoma: "Demi showed how strong she is"
"On the climb, I could see that Demi [Vollering] didn’t want to work with Annemiek [van Vleuten] so I knew that they would look at each other and I decided to take my chance on the downhill, go quite fast and see if I would be able to go. It was a perfect scenario. I heard at the bottom of the Tourmalet that the chasers got back together so that wasn’t ideal but I just rode my pace and tried to stay in my zone. I was just hoping they would be looking at each other more and I could get more time. But Demi showed how strong she is when she passed me. Somehow on...
Stage 7
14| Lotte KOPECKY
Lotte Kopecky: "The chance of my life to get on the podium of the Tour"
"This is why we came here, to win the Tour with Demi [Vollering]! And I think the way she did it, she showed she is the best. I wanted to enjoy my last day in yellow… But it was pretty painful [she laughs]. I just went all out and we wanted to see where I could get. Now I’m less than 10 seconds behind Annemiek [van Vleuten]… So tomorrow, one last day full gas, and maybe I can be on the podium of the Tour! Winning the green jersey is also something that won’t happen every year. I’d like to say I’ll enjoy it tomorrow but I will go full...
Stage 6
191| Cedrine KERBAOL
Cédrine Kerbaol : "I’m even more hungry for Tourmalet"
"With 50km to go, we got thrown off road with the polka-dot jersey, so that was not nice but we quickly came back to the bunch. Then it was quite calm, we didn’t have to worry too much. Sandra [Alonso] was at the front, she did a very good job. I didn’t suffer too much from the crash, it’s just a bit of skin, so everything is good. There was another crash with 1km to go, around 15 riders went down but nobody from the team was involved. After crashing, I’m even more hungry for Tourmalet! It’s usually like that: when I crash, I want to smash everything...