Tour de France: Stage 15 finish line quotes
Cort, Thomas, Martin, Mollema
Magnus Cort (Astana) - Stage winner
"This is a dream come true. I'm very happy to take a victory, and I have to thank my team a lot for giving me this chance and really believing in me, and especially also Michael in the final.
"Everything was perfect, and my sports director had big belief in me. The team had this tactic from many days ago; we said that this was a stage for me, and that I should go out in the break with Valgren, and then everything worked out perfectly. I'm so happy.
"[Omar Farile's win on stage 14] really gave me confidence that it's possible to win here at the Tour. I'm very happy also for him, and for me and the team. It's amazing." (NBC Sports)
Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) - Overall race leader
"It was obviously a hard start. The first hour was a lot of attacks and quite a hard road and wind as well, but we controlled it nicely. There was a bit of stress on the descent when Romain Bardet tried to do a little something, and then obviously the winds in the last 15k, but we were always in control, so a good day.
"It's a rest day now and then a big week. We'll just keep doing what we're doing, you know, day by day and try to do everything right. We'll see what happens.
"I tend to not mind [the day after a rest day] most of the time. I haven't had too may issues before. It's along stage anyway, so I think even if you are a bit dodgy at the start you have plenty of time to get into it."
Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) - 10th in the overall classification
"We’re at a race and I wanted to race for a reason, so I just thought why not try. I thought the downhill would be a lot more downhill than it actually was. There was a headwind and it’s difficult for one guy against a team and a TV motorbike, even if stays 20m in front, that makes a fair difference.
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"It’s a calculating sport and everyone was calculating their pennies before the last week. I felt good and could hurt in the Pyrenees, but you can have a bad day anywhere and my attack is not going to make a difference."
Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) - Third on the stage
"There were two riders from Astana and Bahrain as well as two of us, so everyone was looking at each other in the last 10km. I got away with Izagirre and Nielsen, which was good, but I knew that Nielsen is so fast in the sprint that it’d be difficult to attack and beat him.
"It was a really hard final climb on a narrow road. I tried to attack at the top to close the gap to Majka, but we didn’t make it. It was windy and so tough to do. It was windy in the last 20km, too, and so the finale was a very tactical game."