'It's a perfect day. It's a dream,' says Champs-Élysées winner Groenewegen
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Chris Froome (Team Sky)
Dylan Groenewegen wins the final stage of the Tour de France.
The final sprint on stage 21 of the Tour de France
André Greipel after a second-place finish on the Champs-Élysées(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Sunweb's Michael Matthews and Warren Barguil in their respective jersey on the final stage of the Tour de France(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
It's my first victory in the Tour de France, and on the perfect place for sprinters. It's a perfect day. It's a dream, when I was a kid I watched the Champs Elysees stage of the Tour on the television, so to win here today is an amazing feeling.
The team did a great job to put me in a good position. Then I was in the wheel of Kristoff's lead-out, and sprinting on the left line.
I was in the position I wanted to be in the corner, but maybe I should have gone a bit earlier. Groenewegen made a really strong sprint. It was a headwind and in the end maybe the race was five metres too short.
Of course, I am not happy and the team is not happy that we didn’t win a stage and now we have to look forward.
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The Champs-Élysées never disappoints. There's just something magical about it when you've spent three weeks thinking about being here in this moment, it's just so rewarding every time.
Amazing to see [my wife and son] again. It feels like more than a month on the road.
(How does this win compare to the others?) Each time I've won the Tour it's been so unique. So different. Such a different battle to get to this moment. They're all so special in their own way. This year, I think will be remembered for being the closest and most hard-fought battle between the GC rivals.
(Now you have to think about next year and a possible fifth victory like the likes of Anquetil, Hinault, Indurain...) Huge honour to be talked about in the same sentence as those kinds of guys. Just their place in the history of the Tour de France, I just feel so privileged to be in this position to even have the opportunity to be going for that kind of record.
Definitely a celebration is overdue. I'm looking forward to it.
I don't think I can be happy. My goal was winning a stage and I didn't win. I was close a few times but it didn't happen. Sometimes you try and it doesn't work out and this year I didn't win. I'm looking forward to the end of the year to hopefully have some nice Classics wins.
Warren Barguil (Team Sunweb) - king of the mountains and 10th overall
I didn’t really enjoy today on the cobbles. It was really hard and then I had a flat and I had to come back. The car didn’t really help me come back because they had to stay behind so it was pretty hard work. It was amazing to finish on the Champs Elysees.
