Quotes
Stage 8
41| Matteo JORGENSON
Matteo Jorgenson: "I never thought it was possible"
“To be honest, I never expected to win Paris-Nice. Until this year, I never thought it was possible. But here we are. It could not have gone any better today and the whole week. It’s really not sunk in yet.
I could barely sleep last night. I was so nervous. I felt pressure for the first time in my life. To ride with such a champion as Remco was a very special moment, almost in front of my house actually.
It was a complicated situation this morning, so many scenarios could happen. To be honest, I just had to expect the unexpected and be ready for...
Stage 8
21| Remco EVENEPOEL
Remco Evenepoel: “Matteo deserved to win”
“If you’ve seen my attacks today, only one guy could follow, it was Matteo. He deserved to win. I attacked three times on Cote de Peille, he was the only one to follow. Of course Vlasov jumped across but he left a lot of energy in so doing and Matteo is the deserved winner of this race.
I should be more than happy for the ending of this beautiful week. Today we wanted to set the pace but the bunch split completely with that nasty crash. I was always in a good position. I did very well in this respect this week. When I saw there were only 11 riders left,...
Stage 7
34| Brandon MCNULTY
Brandon McNulty: “A bit of a bad moment”
“It was a tough day, not long but full gas, in the end I’m happy to keep the jersey. I just had a bit of a bad moment, my legs just went bad, I was cold, I fought as hard as I could to keep the jersey another day. Tomorrow will be full gas again, all in the rain, it’s going to be a tough one. I like this kind of day more than a long climb like today but it’s going to be a really tough race, so we’ll have to see how the legs are.”
Stage 7
7| Aleksandr VLASOV
Aleksandr Vlasov: "It’s a lucky mountain”
“I’m really happy to win here, in a World Tour stage race, one of the most important in the calendar. I know that Ilnur Zakarin won here in 2016, it’s a lucky mountain for us. I had good legs today. The plan to see how the last climb went and whether I should help Primoz or follow some attacks and go. I found the moment and decided I could go and I went for it. The conditions were tough, with rain and cold and in the last kilometres, my arms were very cold. It was cold and the parcours was tricky.”
Stage 6
41| Matteo JORGENSON
Matteo Jorgenson: “The race is on”
“I was going for the GC today. I had the feeling it was going to be a GC day with the weather conditions. I’m not disappointed not winning the stage, I’m a bit disappointed with Skjelmose just sitting on for a while but that’s the game I suppose. Chapeau to him.
I really expected that there would be hesitations and I expected Primoz and Remo to go pretty hard on the last climb. They kind of watched each other and I was surprised that we had this big a gap in the end. We had good legs in the front but they must have been holding themselves at...
Stage 6
34| Brandon MCNULTY
Brandon McNulty: “I was not expecting this”
“I was not expecting this. I was thinking we would have a few sprint days before the mountains. But the finishing circuit was quite hard and we expected to do something in the end. But I definitely not expected this. We knew that there would be attacks but I didn’t expect to take the yellow jersey there. I’m in a good position but we have two hard days coming with bad weather and we’ll try as hard as we can.”
Stage 6
66| Mattias SKJELMOSE
Mattias Skjelmose: “I love to race in France”
“It’s a bit of a surprise. I was feeling pretty good all day but this kind of day is special. The team worked perfectly for me and when Mads (Pedersen) was pulled back from the breakaway, the team did a great work. When the team works like this it minimises all the luck. In the final climb, I thought that Remco or Primoz or one of the guys in the GC would go. But they let me go and then Brandon joined me and we came close to Matteo. I love to race in France and especially in this area. It’s the first win of the year for me so it’s special. In the...
Stage 5
86| Lucas PLAPP
Luke Plapp: “I love being in yellow”
“It was super fast and frantic at the finish trying to catch the break. Unfortunately, Dylan (Groenewegen) could not quite make it for the finish but I love being in yellow. I was at the front most of the day and at the back when the sprinters came to fly after the 3-km mark. I knew that if there was an incident I would have been safe so I let the sprinters do their thing.
I’m not sure about tomorrow. Originally, we came here trying to win that stage with Michael (Matthews), but now that he’s not there, the focus will be to defend the jersey.”
...
Stage 5
201| Mathieu BURGAUDEAU
Burgaudeau: “I believe I can keep the jersey”
“There is still a lot of work to do. The three upcoming stages are going to be very hard but the plan is to go in front to pick points and above all to go for a stage win. With uncertainties about the weather, everybody races like it was a one-day race, full gas. We’ll see but I believe I can keep the jersey.”
Stage 5
45| Olav KOOIJ
Olav Kooij: “We had a great plan”
“In the finale, there were not that many guys left to control so I had to find my way to open up. The first day went perfectly and in the second sprint we made some mistakes. Today we just committed. We had a great plan and I’m very happy I could take my second win.
“For me, it was a really good week, now we have other goals for the weekend with Matteo Jorgenson. But so far, it’s been very good.”
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