Lotto Soudal's Thomas De Gendt has described his victory on stage twelve of the Tour De France as his biggest ever victory.
De Gendt told ASO: "In the finale, Serge Pauwels and I talked about Dani Navarro as Serge didn't see him coming across but he made it back only in the last kilometer so we could still sprint for the victory.
"At the bottom of the climb, André Greipel attacked because the plan was to make the others work. Navarro also had a team-mate with him. During the stage, he brought me bottles, gave me advice and he did most of the pulling. Normally I do that for him. It says how much of a great guy he is. He works also for a smaller rider.
"My stage win at the Stelvio was more emotional because it was the first one and it took me to the final podium of the Giro.
"But this is the Tour. It's the biggest race of the year. For my career it's the biggest victory. Now only a stage victory at the Vuelta is missing so I might skip the other Grand Tour to achieve this goal of winning a stage at each of them.”
Adam Yates of Orica Bikeexchange was given the temporary lead of the race following Chris Froome's crash and subsequent mad dash until a bike arrived and he told ASO after the decision was made to neutralise the finish and keep Froome in yellow: "Cycling is the only sport where people can be so close to the players. It has some risks.
"I was with Quintana and Valverde when Froome had a problem. I felt good but not good enough to follow Froome and Porte. Nobody would have wanted to take the yellow jersey like this so it's a good decision the jury has taken.
"Tomorrow it's a time trial. It's not my specialty. I hope to lose the least time possible.”
Peter Sagan said: “It hasn't been an easy day. There was a lot of wind and splits in the peloton. I wasn't chasing any goal today so I took it easy. I'm surprised by the number of people in the climb! I'm glad the public respects but I'm not sure if the whole peloton has the same feeling. I'm referring to Chris Froome…”