"We smoked the whole team for the 'right man' Carapaz, several times we rode as if it were the last 5 kilometers"

For Richard Carapaz, the Tour de France has been more than successful. After wearing the yellow jersey for a day earlier in the Tour, he impressively won the seventeenth stage on Wednesday. Carapaz received full support from his teammates, who rode as if it were all or nothing.

A Tour stage victory had long been missing from Carapaz's impressive resume. In the past, he came close with two second-place finishes. In this Tour, the rider has repeatedly shown his aggressive spirit. While initial success was elusive, his efforts in the seventeenth stage were finally rewarded. "I've been trying to win a Tour stage for years," Carapaz began in the flash interview. "It was a very tough day, with constant attacks. I certainly won't forget today anytime soon."

Carapaz was in a group of more than forty riders and thus had to play his cards at the right moment. He did so on the Col du Noyer, a first-category climb. Carapaz made the move to Simon Yates, and then dropped him on a steep section. "I knew I had a chance, and eventually chose the right moment. I also knew the climb well. I had studied it thoroughly in the roadbook beforehand. It's a beautiful victory," rejoices the rider from EF Education-EasyPost.

While Carapaz has already won three stages each in the Giro and the Vuelta, securing a stage victory in the Tour de France proved to be a much more challenging task. "Only the very best win in the Tour. The level is extremely high, so you have to be very good," concludes Carapaz. Ultimately, persistence paid off, and the stage winner joins the list of riders who have won a stage in all three Grand Tours.

Powless: "We smoked the entire team, but had the right guy up front"

Teammate Neilson Powless spoke to NBC with a smile after the stage, of course. He explained that it took a lot of hard work from the team to get the right man to the front. "It was a tough and incredibly long battle. Everyone wanted to be in the break. After about 110 kilometers or so, the breakaway finally formed. We were repeatedly told over the radio to treat the next five kilometers as if they were the last five kilometers of the race," Powless laughed. "We had to do that several times. It pretty much smoked the whole team, but in the end, we had the right man up there," he obviously referred to Carapaz.

The EF Education-EasyPost troops had tried often in this Tour, but the pieces didn’t fall into place until Wednesday. "I’m very relieved. There are still opportunities in the coming days, but we got what we came for. We wore the yellow jersey for a day and we have a stage win. We’ve been chasing that very hard, so we’re going to celebrate well tonight," concluded Powless.

Sprinter Marijn van den Berg also contributed his part. "Persistence pays off," he said with a smile to NOS. "We worked hard for it again today, nice that it finally worked out." Like Powless, the Tour debutant spoke of relief within the team. "But we also had confidence. Carapaz and Ben Healy are really strong. We’ve been riding for them the whole time, especially closing gaps."

Carapaz’s win came at a good time for the injured Van den Berg

The fight to get into the breakaway was fierce. "We did it perfectly as a team. It was just a matter of persistence. We had a lot of confidence, and then it had to come together at some point," said Van den Berg, who had been involved in a crash the previous day. "I wasn’t having my best day today. I was really feeling the effects of the crashes. Hopefully, I can recover a bit and survive the coming days. My hip mostly bothers me while riding." After the crash, Van den Berg understandably had lost his enthusiasm for a bit. "It's great that Carapaz won," the sprinter laughed. "If my body cooperates a bit, it should be alright."