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John Degenkolb on his victory in stage 9 of the Tour de France: ”I still feel incredibly happy, it was something very special to get this victory and to feel all these emotions after a long time without a big victory. It has always been my big dream of course to win a stage in the Tour de France and if now you look back at yesterday it was really prime time: it was on a Sunday, it was a cobbles stage which everybody watches, it was right before the final of the World Cup. There were not so many people who were not watching I think and that’s what makes it even more unique and special and I am really, really proud that we can share this moment all together.
It's not that you can sit together before the race, make a plan and then simply execute it, but sure, we spoke about different scenarios. It might as well have been Jasper who was in the front group. We won as a team and that’s the most important. It’s not only about me, it could have been Jasper as well up there and that’s so nice also. And that’s basically also what Jasper told me afterwards: this victory is from all of us and that’s nice.
Where is it written down that the winner of the Tour de France has to be the best climber in the world? I think, to win the Tour de France should mean that you are capable of performing in all the conditions and on all the courses we can have. In general, the parcours of this year’s Tour is really well balanced, maybe one TT more and then I think we have a little bit of everything. If we have some wind in the last few days we have echelons, we have cobblestones, we have TTT, we have climbs, we have flat stages and I think that’s how it has to be.”
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Earlier Trek had also announced the creation of a new professional women’s road team for 2019, with the intent of racing the UCI Women’s World Tour, led by former World Champion and British National Champion, Lizzie Deignan. When asked about how much both teams will work together, Luca Guercilena, general manager, said: “Our idea is to have both teams together for the training camps and in the same hotel for the races that coincide, because when it’s possible we would really like to live as one team. Obviously, we don’t want the women just mirroring what the men are doing. Women’s cycling has its own characteristics and we will support that to give them also the best possible visibility. I believe that, as usual, we can learn a lot from women and women can learn a lot from us but I think that everything should be based on the common view and desire to raise the cycling culture in general. That’s what I believe is the ultimate goal from all of us.
Like I said before, we will completely share the structure. There will be some dedicated staff for both teams, but most of our staff will work for both. Essentially we will have four parallel programs over the male and female team all together.”
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