A bad day at the T-Mobile office

Rogers before the crash that ended his '07 Tour hopes (Image credit: AFP Photo)

By Brecht Decaluwé in Tignes

As expected Linus Gerdemann was unable to keep the yellow jersey but it looked as though T-Mobile could keep the jersey in their own team for a while. After Michael Rogers' crash - resulting in the Australian throwing in the towel - it turned out that T-Mobile lost the yellow jersey to Danish climbing goat Michael Rasmussen. After the finish we talked to T-Mobile's general manager Bob Stapleton. "We enjoyed the ups and downs of the sport in a twelve-hour period. Losing Rogers is a big blow but we're going to regroup and see what we can make happen now," Stapleton reacted. The team's manager was disappointed although he did express his joy about the fact that Gerdemann kept the white jersey. "Linus was able to save the white jersey, that is also a victory for us. From now it's day by day, we'll see what we can do."

Michael Rogers was enormously disappointed as he had to step off his bike after being in such a good position. Stapleton didn't know how Rogers' situation was but he did regret the U-turn the team had to take. "All we heard [about Rogers] was what the race doctor said, they didn't think anything was broken but obviously he was in too much pain to take. Everything was looking good there. We had him in a group we knew he could ride with. We had the yellow jersey in the main field. When he [Linus] attacked [yesterday] it was a great setup, then it went to hell," Stapleton sighed.

Linus Gerdemann, the new German superstar, might be happy that his glory days are over as the sudden media attention will be less intensive from now on. "I hope that people just enjoy it and don't put any pressure on him. He's a young kid, great success, really feels the potential. He's just a good young talent and has a long way to go. Anyway, he's got a battle for the white jersey ahead of him, this is going to be tough, too as guys like Contador aren't nobody's. He's going to have a chance for it though," Stapleton looked forward to see his young stars shine again after the rest day.