I started sprinting from a bit far back but I was with [Roberto] Ferrari. I managed to get onto John Degenkolb’s wheel and launch at a very good point. In the last 20 metres, I realized that I was gonna win and it makes me super happy. It makes it up for my Spring classic campaign that I was not happy with. This is also my fifth win this year and I usually have more than that at the time of the Tour de France. It makes my season more or less a success, even though I have further goals coming up, starting with defending my European title. If I lose it, it’ll be nice to have concluded my year in this jersey with a Champs-Elysées victory. I didn’t manage to beat the fastest guys like Greipel, Kittel, Cavendish, Gaviria and Groenewegen earlier in the Tour. Today they weren’t here. I’ve noticed in recent years that they don’t ride the hard races like the Dauphiné or the Tour de Suisse and chose easier races instead to prepare for the Tour. I also struggled in the mountains, especially the day we had 5000 metres of climbing. It was my hardest Tour de France stage ever but I got through and that’s how I made my dream come true. Since I was a young sprinter, the Champs-Elysées stage was my dream. It’s like the world championship of the sprinters every year. It’s amazing. Besides Milan-Sanremo and the Tour of Flanders, this is my best victory. My last Tour de France victory was four years ago and the Norwegian press kept asking me when I’d take a new one. Sometimes I’ve thought I’d stop at two, which is better than none, but I’ve worked hard for four years to achieve this one.
