Waerenskjold felt 'terrible' after a crash, but won a Tour de France stage 24 hours later: 'Quite a few nerves'

The truly surprising winner of Stage 11 of the Tour de France is Soren Waerenskjold of Uno-X. No disrespect to the sprinter; but anyone who heard his comments before the start would never have imagined that he would win the fastest Tour de France stage ever. “It’s truly unbelievable,” said the Norwegian after the stage.

Waerenskjold had crashed the day before in the Massif Central, at the same spot where Tom Pidcock, Matteo Jorgenson, and Chris Harper, among others, also hit the pavement. “I’ll have to see how it feels during the race. Will I sprint for the win? My fingers are really bothering me—there are quite a few nerves there—and it’s hard for me to brake. If it rains, I definitely won’t be sprinting.”

"I knew we had to be at the front with 6 kilometers to go. After that, things quieted down because all the favorites were up front, and of course they wanted to take advantage of that. We had to launch the sprint in those final turns. I got boxed in for a moment, but I wanted to save some energy. Then a gap opened up on the right, and I suddenly saw Cees Bol go.”

Was it actually a sprint that Wandal’s “Hippo” pulled off in the end? On TV, it looked more like an attack that allowed him to stay ahead of Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech). “I thought I was too far back. But then a gap opened up on the right, which normally never happens.”

"I was just trying to sprint toward Bol, held back for a split second, and then moved out of his wheel. But when I looked, there were probably still 250 meters to the finish. I was actually waiting for the same thing to happen as last time, when Merlier passed me, but luckily that didn’t happen today,” said the Norwegian.

Waerenskjold—also a strong time trialist— saw his chance and covered the final 350 meters at top speed. “This means everything. It’s my biggest victory so far. As I said when I came here: I knew there were two or three riders faster than me, but if I’m lucky and have a good sprint, like today, then it’s possible.”

"Normally, I’m sometimes very confident and believe in myself, but there are also plenty of times when I feel super tired and think it’s impossible to win here," he says, offering a glimpse into his soul. “So yeah, it’s crazy that it worked out today. Especially after that crash; at first I felt really awful, but then my body got going, and thanks to the adrenaline, I felt a lot better in the final.”

"To finish it off like this for the team...," he continues in his flash interview. “We’ve had quite a few ups and downs in this round. So yeah, it’s unbelievable to pull off this victory. I need to let it sink in for a moment. Later on, I’ll probably be happier than I look right now, but it’s a big surprise even to me,” said the down-to-earth Norwegian.