Tour de France quotes: Team time trial a matter of seconds

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BMC Racing, the team time trial world champions, proved their prowess in the discipline with a tenacious performance in the Tour de France stage 9 test to Plumelec. Though they missed getting American Tejay van Garderen into the yellow jersey, they managed the stage victory when Team Sky lost ground in the final meters and slipped into second place by one solitary second.

There were winners and losers in the general classification, with Chris Froome (Sky) keeping the maillot jaune and 12 seconds over van Garderen, Movistar conceded only four seconds to BMC, while Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) lost 28 seconds, and Vincenzo Nibali's Astana squad faltered and gave up 35.

Tejay van Garderen (BMC) 2nd at 12 seconds:

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We could have taken the yellow jersey and the stage but we’ll take the stage win. The whole thing was a blur. We had to rail the corners and make sure we stayed together outside of them and on the climbs we had to make sure that the stronger guys pulled for longer. Rohan Dennis he was the key element to the team, he’s just got a motor.

Every team has had to spend energy and time on the front. If we were at the back we could have been tangled up in a bunch of crashes and maybe caught behind some splits. It costs energy in the wind but saves energy not having to grow skin back.

Rigoberto Uran (Etixx-Quickstep) 6th at 1:19:

I wish Tony [Martin] was here because he would have helped me a lot. I think we did our best, we are pretty happy with the time.

Nairo Quintana (Movistar) 9th at 01:59:

We’re a little bit disappointed as we didn’t win the stage but it’s okay. I’ve lost some valuable time in the previous stages but I’ve managed to win some of that back against some of my rivals.

Geraint Thomas (Team Sky):

I'm annoyed we didn't win. We should have won that. Fair play to BMC they did a good ride but it’s disappointing. It's been a tough week. A lot of people say it, that the Tour starts on Tuesday with the mountains, which is crazy, but we can be happy. We put time into everyone else bar Tejay, but we really wanted that.

John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin):

It was really hard. I prefer to do the team time trial when we are more fresh in the first couple of days. It’s very special. We tried out best. Maybe it wasn’t super perfect but I think it was a good performance. The main focus was to not lost too much time for Barguil.

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