Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin - Deceuninck), stage winner, in an official interview:
"The sprint was close, but this is the Tour de France. There are no presents for anyone here. Everyone gives everything and I think I can be really happy with our team performance. The leadout was great. Jonas Rickaert did the first part and then Mathieu van der Poel did a fantastic job and I'm really happy that I was able to pull it through to the finish line. It was a difficult finale with the S-curve at the end. I tried to take the shortest route to the line. The first sprint stage is always very nervous. Because everyone is motivated and there was already stress in the peloton when there were still 70 kilometres to go. Everyone is racing for victory. I'm happy with the win for now, but we want to win more stages - and of course I'd also like to win the green jersey."
Pedersen: "I'm not at the Tour to finish ninth"
Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious), stage runner-up, on Eurosport:
"We are a team for the classification, so it's special for me that all the guys like Matej Mohoric, Fred Wright and Nikias Arndt and Pello Bilbao helped me today in my first Tour de France. I was confident in the finale and felt really good. I knew I had to be at the front, there were some close position battles, but luckily they ended well for me. For a few seconds I thought I could win, but Jasper kept his pace - he was the strongest rider. It's a great result though and I'll be proud of it in the future. But as a sprinter it's about winning and my dream is to win a stage at the Tour. It's not as easy for me as it is for the top sprinters who always finish in the top three. It's hard work for me, so it's a shame that I didn't win today."
Mads Pedersen (Lidl - Trek) on Eurosport:
"It was a super hectic finale, from 50 kilometres before the finish it got faster and faster. At one point we lost each other as a team, my team-mates were on the left while I moved to the right. It was a bit my fault and I'm sorry for my boys that I can't give them anything back for their work today. We'll come back stronger tomorrow. But I'm annoyed, I'm not at the Tour to finish ninth."
Yates: "We took it easy today"
Mathieu van der Poel (Alepcin - Deceuninck) on Eurosport:
"Yesterday I tried to save some energy as I knew it would be very difficult today with the first sprint stage - because everyone still has good legs. It's difficult to make a difference then - but we put in a perfect leadout. My goal is to win a stage and I came to the Tour in good shape. In the last two days, however, I didn't have the legs I had before the Tour. But the race goes on for three weeks, so there are still plenty of opportunities. But at the moment I'm just happy for the team."
Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates), wearer of the yellow jersey, at the official interview:
"It was a good day for us, it was a bit about recovering, at least as much as possible - because that's never easy on the Tour. But we took it easy today and wanted to avoid crashes - we did a good job today. Because the first sprint stage is always difficult."
