... Tadej Pogacar via Velon: "Today was one of the worst days of my life on the bike. But I had to keep fighting. Marc Soler pushed me to my limits. I hope that I can recover and aim for another stage win on the 20th stage."
Felix Gall on his victory on the 17th stage of the 2023 Tour de France
Felix Gall (AG2R-Citroën Team), in an official interview:
"It's unbelievable. I don't know what to say. The whole year has been incredible and now to win the queen stage of the Tour de France is unbelievable. I just want to thank the team. They have given me so much. It's not easy to do a stage race over three weeks. After a few days, I slipped into the captain's role. We focussed on that. I put a lot of stress on myself. It's not easy. But in the last few days I've gained more and more confidence. I was just afraid of being caught up on the last kilometre."
... Felix Gall on the timing of his attack: "I felt great but didn't think the breakaway group had much chance of winning. However, the stage was so hard and I felt good, so I joined the group to go into the final climb with a small advantage over the favourites. I felt really good before the last climb. When I look at my performance data, you know it was a super hard day. I knew that if we kept up this pace for the whole stage, I had a good chance. Ben (O'Connor; editor's note) did a fantastic job on the last climb. I waited for the steeper part to attack. I wasn't feeling so great, but I knew from my performance data that I was riding at a good pace. I don't want to say that this is a childhood dream, but a year and a half ago I could never have imagined it."
Jonas Vingegaard: "We're not in Paris yet"
Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), in an official interview:
"We are obviously very happy. It's hard to describe having more than seven minutes now, it's incredible. Of course, the Tour de France isn't over yet and I'm sure Tadej will try something in the last three stages. So we still have to keep fighting. We're not in Paris yet."
... Jonas Vingegaard on the fall of Tadej Pogacar: "I was behind him. A rider went out to the right and hit Tadej's bike and there was nothing Tadej could do. That's very unfortunate for him. We then stopped pushing the pace and didn't want to capitalise on it."
... Jonas Vingegaard on the climb to the Col de la Loze: "It was crazy. The spectators were good. But I had to stop because of the car. That was unfortunate, of course. But that can happen when you have a 20 per cent gradient at the end of the Tour de France."
Grischa Niermann: "The last mountain was pure chaos"
Grischa Niermann (Sports Director at Jumbo-Visma), at sportschau.de:
"I'm a bit exhilarated. The last mountain was pure chaos. We were at a standstill with the cars, the motorbikes were at a standstill. The racers were held up. Unfortunately, that wasn't the way it should have been. But good: we're all at the finish line now. It's just so popular now, there are so many spectators here that it's almost no longer possible to ride up the mountain without barriers and you saw that again today. Cycling thrives on that. But if it gets to the point where the riders can no longer get through, where all the support vehicles are held up and are in the way of the next riders, then of course it becomes difficult and then of course you have to make sure that the sporting competition can be maintained. Today it didn't matter in the end, but Jonas came to a standstill on the mountain because he couldn't get past the cars and the spectators who were in the way. You have to think about how you can get a better handle on that."
... Grischa Niermann on the performance of Jonas Vingegaard: "Today he mainly had the endurance. Today was clearly the best stage for Jonas, where hopefully we can hold off Pogacar and I think the five minutes or whatever he pulled out today wasn't because Jonas was so good, but because Pogacar had a breakaway down the road and couldn't keep up. Yesterday was an incredible performance, he didn't expect it himself and neither did we. I thought it would be very close and very tight. I think he had the best day of his life on the bike yesterday."
Simon Yates (Team Jayco-AlUla), on Eurosport:
"That was a brutal finish. Congratulations to Felix Gall. That was a fantastic performance. I couldn't catch him. I wanted to catch him on the descent, but I was already pretty much at the limit myself. We wanted to go for the stage win today and my team-mates did a fantastic job. Lawson Craddock, who kept the pace high in the escape group, and Chris Harper, who set the pace for me in the finale."
