Tour de France 2020 stage 19 - finish line quotes

Team Sunweb rider Denmarks Soren Kragh Andersen rides ahead during the 19th stage of the 107th edition of the Tour de France cycling race 160 km between BourgenBresse and Champagnole on September 18 2020 Photo by AnneChristine POUJOULAT AFP Photo by ANNECHRISTINE POUJOULATAFP via Getty Images
Soren Kragh Andersen of Team Sunweb snags second victory of 2020 Tour de France (Image credit: Getty Images Sport)

Søren Kragh Andersen (Team Sunweb), stage 19 winner

"I have to say that the last kilometre I was screaming for them to confirm one minute, and I didn’t believe it. Two wins in the same Tour de France. I’m speechless. I could never have dreamed about something better. 

"When the group was there, they had all the best riders in the world on hilly terrain, and I thought ' how do I beat these guys?' The moment came after he [Matteo Trentin] attacked really hard, and I was also at the limit. I thought that if I just got a small gap, they might look at each other, and that is exactly what happened. That was my luck.

"For the rest of my life, this is a memory for life, I’m super happy." (Eurosport)

Matteo Trentin (CCC team), 10th on the stage

“It was a pity the others wanted to make people lose rather than try to win. It wasn’t a lot of fun for me. I would have preferred to have fought and lost the sprint for first than lost the sprint for eighth.

“The break all happened in a moment. After the intermediate sprint, I decided to try to keep going because I knew that if we brought [Sam] Bennett to a sprint, we didn’t have much chance of winning. So I said to Peter [Sagan], ‘Let’s go.’ He was convinced and then Greg [Van Avermaet] came up to us as well, and in a moment that group formed. I think the whole peloton was very tired, the GC guys were thinking of the time trial tomorrow and after another stage with a high average speed, everyone was happy to let a group go to fight it out for the stage.

“I attacked first. Peter closed me down. I was trying with Van Avermaet. I told him everyone was on the limit a bit. And then Kragh Andersen picked the right moment again, well done to him.” (EuroSport)

Primož Roglič (Jumbo Visma), overall leader after stage 19


“I am feeling good. Today was a good day, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow. Normally, I will go to do one more recon tomorrow, but I have already checked it. I’ll look again tomorrow morning. Tomorrow it’s all on me. The team has done an amazing job, I have the [yellow] jersey but we have all worked for it.

“I’m still relaxed. So far so good. I just have to take it in the moment. I just have to do my job.”

On exclusion of team directeur sportif Merijn Zeeman:
“For sure I’m not happy about it because it’s bad news for us. I was not there, I didn’t see what was happening, so it’s really difficult to comment anything.” (France Télévisions)

Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quickstep) - eighth on stage and green jersey leader

"I want to thank my team again. It was a really hard day and I know that I probably race very frustrating for other competitors, but it’s all I can do because they’re so strong." (Flobikes)

Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) - finished in peloton 7:38 behind stage winner

“I’m feeling a lot of disappointment because I didn’t come here to finish 30th or 35th. I was second on the Dauphiné and I wanted to do better than I have here. But I do feel a bit of pride to be making it to the finish of the Tour [in Paris] considering the injuries I had after my crash. I’ve really had to fight.” (France Télévisions)

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