Groenewegen proud, Van Avermaet relieved, Sutherland on Martin's crash
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Dylan Groenewegen wins the stage(Image credit: Getty Images)
Greg Van Avermaet in yellow after stage 7 at the Tour de France(Image credit: Getty Images)
Richie Porte finishes stage 7 at the Tour de France(Image credit: Getty Images)
Stage 8 of the Tour de France(Image credit: Getty Images)
Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNl-Jumbo) - stage winner
The legs have been better every day. It was a fast final with a lot of corners but the team did an amazing job and put me in a great position. I saw Gaviria and Greipel were fighting for position but I saw the finish line and thought, this is the moment - I'm going. It was good.
It was a hectic final, but that’s every day in the Tour. I am very proud of my team. The last two days have been very good with two wins.
We're looking forward, tomorrow's a hard stage, also for the general classification riders. We will see, we'll try.
Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) - race leader
Like we always say, a stage of the Tour is a stage of the Tour. You always have to be careful of losing any seconds. So I'm pretty happy we are up there with me and Richie and in a good position. The team did great again. I look forward now to [wearing] yellow on the cobbles.
It's going to be a special feeling. I'm pretty motivated, hopefully the team can do good again and I think it can be a good day tomorrow.
We will see what we can do - we will try to do both the good result and a good position on every secteur will be the most important, and Richie will be up there also I hope.
Richie Porte (BMC Racing)
It’s never not stressful. It’s easier but there’s still stress. It was a fast day after yesterday, thankfully, and the guys were great. I guess the Tour really kicks off tomorrow.
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We’ve all done a recon of the cobbles and we’ve raced on them before. I’m not sure that us GC guys are fully prepared for what faces us tomorrow.
Greg has every right to have ambitions. I think that the rest of the guys will be around me. We have a super strong team and it’s going to be a fight to get into those cobbled sections, so bring it on. [Eurosport]
Yves Lampaert (Quick-Step Floors)
[On Gaviria's relegation]
I was behind, I didn’t see what happened. I will have to see the images first to say something.
It was very chaotic. It was a really nervous sprint. I don’t know what happened but we will talk on the bus later.
I think [Gilbert] wanted to go for the victory and take seconds but when the peloton is going that fast it is very hard to stay away. [Eurosport]
Rory Sutherland (UAE Team Emirates)
Like every day - there were too many people trying to go through a small spot. Every single team is at the front, everyone's pushing, pushing even though it's a headwind. You have to choose whether you want to be up in the middle of it and hopefully get through it, or you choose to be at the back and be behind it and try to get back on.
I kind of stay behind him to make sure someone's always there, and yeah - when I got to him, two of the other climbers are there and the bike's all broken and you have to wait for the bike to come, then you have to rustle him to get back on the bike and just go and then figure it out later. We got him moving, and then the whole team stopped and chased back as hard as we could.
It's going to hurt a lot tomorrow. It is what it is. You know, it's the Tour, and there are a lot of other people who've had crashes and been just fine, and we saw last year with a worse crash and he was fine after that.
It's good we got the stage win - you take that and you enjoy it, and keep going. There's still a long way to go.
It's not a big issue at all - look at the Giro - one day people are 10 seconds or a minute behind and then they're at 40 minutes. The way this Tour is, and how hard it is these next couple of weeks, anything can still happen.
