Tour de France 2023 - Felix Gall : "This whole year has been incredible and now to do such a good Tour de France, to win the queen stage, it's crazy"
Au terme de l'une des étapes les plus difficiles de ces dernières années sur le Tour de France, Felix Gall s'est imposé au sommet de l'altiport de Courchevel. Parti dans l'échappée matinale, l'Autrichien d'AG2R Citroën a fait bosser son équipe tout au long de la journée, avant d'attaquer dans l'ascension finale du Col de la Loze. Très costaud, Gall a réussi à se défaire et à résister aux Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) et compagnie, pour aller s'offrir sa première victoire sur un Grand Tour. Par la même occasion, il se replace à la 8e position au classement général. Bref une journée de rêve, que nous raconte le grimpeur de 25 ans à l'arrivée. "C'est incroyable, je ne sais pas quoi dire. Cette année entière a été incroyable et maintenant de faire un aussi bon Tour de France, de gagner l'étape reine, c'est fou. Je veux juste dire merci à l'équipe, ils m'ont tellement donné..."
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00:00 No, it's incredible. I don't know what to say. I mean, this whole year has been incredible.
00:15 And now, yeah, to do so well in the Tour de France and to win the Queen's stage, it's
00:22 incredible and I just want to say thank you to the team. They have given me so much.
00:36 You look completely empty physically and mentally, am I correct?
00:41 Yeah, I mean, it's not easy to do a three-week stage race and then also, yeah, I had the
00:52 role of the leader now after a few days, so we slowly focused on that and I was stressing
01:00 myself a lot about that also. And yeah, it's not easy, but the last few days I have been
01:08 more and more comfortable and now I was just afraid that I would be caught on the last
01:17 or just the last kilometre, so the last descent and yeah, it's incredible.
01:24 It's a classical question, but what is going through your mind? What went through your
01:28 mind when you crossed that line?
01:32 Not much. I'm just grateful for all this.
01:39 When did you decide to attack?
01:41 Well, I was feeling really great and actually I was feeling great all day and yeah, I didn't
01:50 think that or thought that the chance would have, the break would have a big chance to
01:54 go for the victory. But I mean, the stage was so hard and I felt good at the start and
02:00 so I thought, yeah, why not be in there to have a little bit of a gap on the favourites
02:07 on the final climb to anticipate the final. And then actually in the final or before the
02:15 last climb, I was feeling super good and just looking by the numbers, I knew it was a super
02:23 hard day, even though I was feeling good, but I knew if we do this pace all day, yeah,
02:32 I'm in a good spot to give it a try. Not many people, oh yeah, and then I just...
02:37 You're a champion, you're a champion. Enjoy.
02:45 Thank you.
02:47 And then Ben did a great job on the last climb and I just won. I felt so good at the bottom
02:54 and I was just waiting for the steep part until it starts so I could attack and then
03:00 I was feeling not that super good anymore, but I wanted to give it a try and I also knew
03:07 looking by the numbers that I'm doing a good pace and also we're in altitude.
03:14 You're living a dream. This is something that you probably dreamt of, no?
03:17 Yeah, I mean, it's not... I cannot say it's a childhood dream, but it's definitely...
03:23 Yeah, one year ago or one and a half years ago, yeah, I could have never imagined to
03:30 be in this position now.
03:31 [MUSIC PLAYING]
03:35 you