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Quotes from the start of the 16th stage of the 2024 Tour de France – Mark Cavendish, Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert and Jasper Philipsen

Quotes from the start of the 16th stage of the 2024 Tour de France – Mark Cavendish, Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert and Jasper Philipsen

“Absolutely, it’s always been like that in the Tour de France when you’re fighting through those mountains. There has to be something good on the other side because I’ll always fight in the Tour because I respect the race so much. It’s the Tour de France. I’ve always said, with the suffering and the bad moments, if you have something that helps you through, it always helps.”

About the finale today in Nîmes: “I think 2008 was my first Tour de France, where I won. Since then we’ve finished here, we didn’t have a sprint in (20)21, but it’s the same kind of last 1.5km, Nils Politt won there, so we know we remember it. Not different, but we went through a roundabout that day and we’re going around it this time. Same for everyone, right? Do your homework, we have five guys here and everyone is motivated to do what we can. Make it worth it to go through the mountains, whatever happens today, Sunday was more work, more impressive than any leadout in the history of cycling could have done. I’m super proud of those guys, super grateful, they were like machines.

Mathieu van der Poel (Wielerflits): “I think this is our last chance as a team. We have to do everything we can to sprint with Jasper (Philipsen). Jasper is our biggest chance today. The goal has to be to put him in position for the stage win… I’ve seen quite a few medals on my TrainingPeaks. But apparently you don’t need that much in this Tour. But I think I’m close to top form.”

About stage 18, where he has a chance of winning: “Not really. I haven’t really looked at the stage yet, but I think it’s a stage with more than 3,000 meters of elevation. They call that a transition stage these days, but given the limited number of kilometers, it might be even harder than Liège-Bastogne-Liège. As I’ve said a few times: there are just very few opportunities. I think I can use that last week towards the Olympic Games. Last year it became clear that this brings me to a high level,” said the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider, who hopes he can maintain his current feeling. “I tested my legs a few times and I was actually quite happy with that. The Tourmalet in particular was one of the better climbs I’ve ever done. If I can test my legs a few more times and suffer a few more times by going up a climb, then I’ll be fine.”

Wout van Aert (ITV Cycling): “Of course I think it’s always been our strength, the team spirit; that we want to race, that we want to do it together, that won’t be different than the last week,” he said of tackling the mountains and Tadej Pogacar. “Last Sunday we got beaten, but in the end we also saw that we are super strong as a team. We blew the race apart and we’re going to use that strength in the last week.”

Does Van Aert still have a chance to win a stage in this Tour? “I’m betting on today and Thursday stage 18, ed.), tomorrow it will be quite difficult even from a breakaway, so yes, there’s not much left”.

Jasper Philipsen (Wielerflits): “After Sunday’s stage I had stiff legs, it was a really tough stage. But yesterday I didn’t completely come to a standstill. I had a good rest day and today is another important day. We’re going to try to get the most out of it. I think the team will get one or two more chances this week. Among others with Mathieu, who is strong. For the rest we have to keep going and try to get to Nice. So we can’t mess it up today.”

On the points classification: “But you have to try to defend that second place, because you never know what happens until Nice. As long as the race is not over, everything is still possible.”

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