29 June 2021

Nairo 17th in landerneau

The first stage of the 2021 Tour de France was marked by several crashes, two of them very important in the final. Nairo Quintana finishes 17th at the top of the Fosse-aux-Loups

Finish-Line…

 

 

I can’t avoid the first big crash and I hit the ground with my cheekbone. The second one on the descent, I barely make it through, it falls to the right, and a few seconds before I reposition myself to the left. I finish at the top of the Fosse-aux-Loups with nineteen other riders. I finish 17th at the top of this climb with the best riders. I am happy to have passed between the drops at the end of this rather nervous day which was like the first stage last year in the 2020 Tour”.

 

“The instructions at the start of this first stage of the Tour were to get into the breakaway. It was a struggle to get into the breakaway. I tried to go several times, then a group comes out, and I go on the counter and join it. The goal was to score points for the mountain classification, but also to show the colours of the Arkéa-Samsic team on these first stages of the Tour. I tried to be the first climber to score the most points, the one in Locronan, but I had left too much strength in the chase to catch the group in front of me. This stage was very nervous, with a lot of people on the roads, it’s nice, it motivates, but we also have to respect the safety rules for us riders“.

It wasn’t the day I was hoping for in this first stage of the Tour in Brittany. I crashed at full speed in the final of this first stage a few meters from the Fosse-aux-Loups. I’m very tired, but I’m OK. The public has been present all day long at the roadside, and that’s good news, but please, pay attention to us too, don’t overflow the road. I don’t want to put the blame on anyone, but a peloton doing a card game that collapses in one go for a few seconds on television is not worth it”.

 

Sébastien Hinault, Sport-Director

THE DEBRIEF

 

“Nairo finishes 17th at the top of the Fosse aux Loups. Even if we keep saying that the general classification is not our main goal this year, it shows that he is doing well. He was caught in the first crash, but it wasn’t serious. This proves that he has the legs. That’s the positive information of the day. Because, otherwise, the final of this first stage was marked by two big crashes, we had some riders who were caught in them, Élie, Warren, Dan and Clément who is complaining about his back. It fell very fast, it fell in numbers too, and inevitably the bikes and the men piled up on the ground“.

Riders