Argos Shimano's Marcel Kittel described his stage victory on the Champs Elysees as a superb victory.
Speaking about his fourth stage win in the 100th Tour De France, Kittel told his team's press office: "This is a dream come true. "It has been a hard three weeks but I felt OK today. The guys did a really good job keeping me out of the wind on the Champs Elysees and then set me up perfectly.
"The final sprint went perfectly to plan. Even though Tom Veelers wasn’t there we made a good plan and it worked. We changed the order of the lead-out and it worked out. They launched me perfectly and no-one came past me before the line.
"This is a superb victory and I have to thank my team, the team spirit has been amazing right since day one in Corsica. We were ready for today, even though the past three weeks have been tiring; everyone was really up for this final stage. Everybody believed in it and stayed focused right to the end. This is a dream come true."
"This victory is a reward for our way of working and for how well the team have pulled together over the past three weeks," said Argos Shimano’s team coach Christian Guiberteau. "Once everybody survived the mountains we were fully focused on this stage.
"Together with the experts, coaches and riders we analysed the finish before the stage and how best to change the lead-out and to know exactly what to do and when.
"We made these changes and it worked out perfectly. The goal was to show a perfect sprint train, with 4 stage wins, we have showed that our sprint train works really well, to achieve this success with our team is a great reward for our way of working."
"This stage is the highlight, what else can we ask for," said Iwan Spekenbrink Argos Shimano’s team manager. "A Tour with so much history – winning stage one the first time the race has been to Corsica and taking the yellow jersey, and taking the final stage the first time it has been run in the evening. It’s so symbolic, and to win the stages we have is amazing.
"The Champs Elysees is the World Championships of the sprints; everyone wants to get to the last corner first and the guys did it.
"We have come a long, long way, with successes and failures but we have kept believing all the while and this is really the reward for everyone in the team but also anyone connected to the team.
Our secret is believing in the team and having an extremely loyal group of people with exceptional team-spirit to keep everyone motivated and confident.”