Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) - winner of stage 4
"Phew, it was quite a fast day, it was hard but the guys again did a really good job; I was always in a good position and so could do a nice sprint, so I’m very happy."
"It’s (not taking the yellow jersey) the news I have to accept, I don't really care. It’s a nice day, we stayed safe and we won, so even better. Let's continue like that.
"I’m coming back after my crash, eh. We can see that I can race and every day I feel a little better. It's nice to be able to ride again. I already got proof that I was ready for the start. Now we need to continue the whole team with good job." (Eurosport)
Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) - fifth and race leader
"The objective today was to control things to keep the jersey.
"Obviously, in the final, I’d love to have been able to win and I tried to do it, but the tempo was very, very high on the final ascent. I was on the limit, so there’s no disappointment.
"We’re just happy to be in yellow again tomorrow. It was a very hard stage. Like I said, I’m very proud of my team and I have to thank them. But I don’t want to ruin the team either, we’re not here to control the race for three weeks. (France Television)
Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) - seventh
"It was really fast and a really short climb, punchy in the final. It was a good climb to see how the GC riders are. I’m happy to arrive with them because it was really hard.
"It’s not good when another GC rider gets some seconds but I think we need to be patient and know that our best scenario is to arrive in the third week without losing too much time and then trying to recover time on the long climbs. We want to arrive as fresh as we can in the final week. (ITV)
Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) - third
“The sensations were good.
"The final climb was quite rolling, as we’d expected. There weren’t a lot of attacks from distance and the tempo was high. There was a lot of battling for positions, too.
"The final kilometre went well, and then with 600m to go, I tried to spring a surprise. I said this morning I was going to be opportunistic and that’s what I tried to do.
"In the sprint, I wasn’t able to win but it was good to be up there. The Tour is still long and there are much harder days ahead of us.” (France Television)
Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) - eighth
"It was important to finish up there the main group of favourites.
"Yesterday, I said that if I’d know I’d be able to be in that front group, I’d be very happy.
"It was really fast. I think it was a good job all round by us. After my crash on stage 1 I had some problems with my back but now I’m feeling much better and things went well today." (Eurosport)
Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-hansgrohe) - 17th on stage at nine seconds
"I felt OK until 1.5km to go, then they started to go really fast and I was a bit too much behind. And then, I couldn't follow, it was a bit too much.
"I don't have any pain anymore, it's getting better and better. I'm not at 100 per cent now but I hope the next days it will get better.
"There's still along way to Paris and a lot more mountain stages. (Bora-hansgrohe)
