"Did I time my sprint perfectly? I don’t know, because I launched my sprint without knowing how far I was from the finish… It was a mess to find my position, but I made it thanks to my team. My teammates did a great job. After all the work we did two days ago and today, we got our reward. Alpecin and us were the only two teams chasing the breakaway throughout the stage, so I’m happy this stage wasn’t won by somebody from any other team.
I followed Jasper [Philipsen] for a long time, but then I lost him and found myself in the ‘casino’. I got pushed away many times, so I couldn’t get back to Jasper’s wheel. In the last 600 meters, I got pushed away again and I told myself I was going to fight all the way to the finish. I’m happy I took this victory.
It feels really good to win. It’s only my third Tour de France, and it makes me proud to think I won at least one stage on each participation."
