Rodríguez praises inspiring workhorse Kwiatkowski following magnificent victory: "Went to the car three times"

Carlos Rodríguez won the fourteenth stage of the Tour de France after a spectacular race. The INEOS Grenadiers Spaniard caught up with Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard during the descent of the Joux Plane and then secured the victory thanks to his impressive downhill skills.

"It's incredible, I can't find the words. Just being here alone is a dream, winning is simply fantastic. It's something I always wanted to achieve. Now I have it. I am super happy and also super grateful to the team. For the work they put into me and the belief they have in me, this wouldn't have been possible without them," said Rodríguez in the flash interview.

Rodríguez was one of the last riders to drop on the Joux Plane. "After that, I didn't think about winning anymore. I just did my best at my own pace. Then I went full throttle on the descent. They (Pogacar and Vingegaard, ed.) were looking at each other, and I thought, 'I'm going all the way to the finish.' I took risks but didn't push my limits because I definitely didn't want to crash. It had a few close calls on certain corners."

Text continues below photo.

Kwiatkowski helped Rodriguez at crucial moments

It is the second consecutive victory for INEOS. On Friday, Michal Kwiatkowski already won on the Grand Colombier. "Not only did his victory inspire me, but the same goes for all the work that he does. Today, for example, he was in the breakaway, and when he was caught, he went to the team car three times to get water for us. It was impressive. These kinds of details really helped me secure the win."

Rodríguez also climbed up to the third position in the general classification. He made up for his time gap on Jai Hindley. "That was the goal for today, and I'm happy that I achieved it. I'm going to celebrate the victory as well. Furthermore, I need to recover well because tomorrow is another big day," said the climbing talent, emphasizing once again in an interview with Marca that he purely focused on the overall classification. "I wanted to descend as quickly as possible to create a gap between Jai Hindley and the others. For now, I'm not thinking about the podium."