Tour de France stage 11 reactions: Egan Bernal, Aime De Gendt, Richie Porte, Dylan Groenewegen
Jul 18 2019 03:54 am CET
Tour de France
The peloton rode calmly for most of the 11th stage of the Tour de France until there as a crash with 30 kilometres to go that involved GC riders like Nairo Quintana and Richie Porte. Egan Bernal, Aime De Gendt -winner of the combativity award, Richie Porte and Dylan Groenewegen -who finished second in the bunch sprint, shared their thoughts at the end of the stage.
Egan Bernal (Team Ineos)
"Tomorrow’s stage will be the first one in the mountains and I don’t know what to expect. I just hope to feel good. I think it’s too early to go on the offensive, especially as an ITT and another difficult mountain stage come right after. But, in any case, I’m sure there will be some attackers tomorrow."
Aime De Gendt (Wanty Gobert)
"When I went solo, around 7 kilometres to go, it was all downhill. I believed everything was flat until the finish and I thought I may have a chance of making it. But then came the airport part, and that uphill was never-ending… I could feel lactic acid all over my legs. Rossetto saying I was saving energy in the last kilometres so I could break away solo and win the Combativity prize? Well, I think that isn’t true. I felt I was stronger in the last kms and that’s why Rossetto couldn’t follow me when I accelerated. The work on the breakaway was alright. We were working well together until 20k to go. From then on, we’d gone full gas. At some point, I felt I could go faster and that’s why I attacked."
Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo)
"In the grand scheme of things it wasn't a terrible crash, but I did hit my head fairly hard. We were up at the front so it was pretty indiscriminate the crash was here. It's probably a relief to get the first crash over and done with. I hope it doesn't affect me tomorrow - we'll see."
Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo-Visma)
"Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Today I lost. Last time, I won by half a wheel, now I lose by half a wheel. We took the initiative early. I wanted to. I was in an ideal position, but I felt that Mike could no longer continue to pull a bit more, so I started my sprint. There was a lot of headwinds. It is a pity that I came a few millimetres short, but that is also part of sprinting. I knew that when I started the sprint it went a little early. I couldn’t wait any longer either, because then they would be all over me. This is disappointing because I really wanted to win."
SUBSCRIBE TO RSS FEEDSEGAN ARLEY BERNAL GOMEZ
AIMé DE GENDT
RICHIE PORTE
DYLAN GROENEWEGEN
TOUR DE FRANCE
