"As a Frenchman, it's crazy to win a stage in the Tour de France. This morning I didn't really believe I could win, but you have to take your chances anyway. Once on the final climb, I realised I wasn't strong enough to drop Ben Healy – nor was he strong enough to drop me. That's when I decided to wait and go for the sprint. My teammate Ilan [Van Wilder] was essential, because when he came back, no one wanted to ride because the headwind was very strong. Thanks to his pace, the Maillot Jaune didn't manage to get back on our wheel.
I knew the last few hundred meters were very steep, so I chose to wait for Healy to launch the sprint first and then try to overtake him.
I dreamed of winning a stage in the Tour de France, it's unique. And on Ventoux it's even more unique. It's a legendary place in cycling, even internationally, everyone knows Mont Ventoux.
At first, I wasn't scheduled to do the Tour de France, so I was very disappointed. But then they brought me in to help Remco, so I had absolutely no goal of winning a stage. Then we had to regroup within the team and during the rest day, we said to ourselves that it was already good to have won stages and that we could keep going. That's what we did when we got back out there, and we might even win again tomorrow with Tim [Merlier]."
