With two stage wins for Tom Dumoulin and some good sprints from John Degenkolb, Giant-Alpecin have had a successful Tour. However Warren Barguil is out of GC contention and that leaves the team with mixed emotions.

“In general, I am very satisfied with the first two weeks of the Tour. First, we have achieved two stages victories with Tom which is fantastic, one in a mountain stage and one in the time trial. Therefore we have reached one of our targets of the Tour already," coach Marc Reef said.

“Next to that we wanted to do the sprints with John and the first four chances it didn’t work out immediately. Indeed it was difficult for John to come into the race but day by day he continued to improve and gain race fitness. In the last two sprint opportunities, he was up there up competing with the best. It showed that his level is progressing which is a really good sign.

“However the team’s biggest goal with the GC with Warren is not achievable anymore. Of course, in the end, it depends if you have the legs or not. Until the last mountain stage in the Jura, everything went according to plan but unfortunately Warren wasn’t able to follow the GC group. Of course, it is a big disappointment but that it is part of cycling. We will learn from this as a team and see where we can improve for the upcoming years.”

Barguil added:

“I am very disappointed because I worked so hard for the Tour, now all my hopes for a good overall classification are gone. I made a lot of sacrifices by doing an altitude training camp in Sierra Nevada and maybe I peaked too soon at the Tour de Suisse. Now I am going to focus on stage wins.”