Carlos Sastre (Team CSC, 2nd at 5'42) "I'm happy as I've done the best I could do. This Tour has...
Carlos Sastre (CSC) (Image credit: Jon Devich)
Carlos Sastre (Team CSC, 2nd at 5'42)
"I'm happy as I've done the best I could do. This Tour has certainly been the most spectacular ever.
"The gaps between the top three riders are very tight for the time trial...
"The Tour has been very hard, and we are all very tired now, so I don't know how we will end up. I'll try to recuperate tomorrow, and do the time trial flat out."
What do you think will be most important for the TT? "Everything - you need strength, motivation and technical ability for the time trial. It's a combination of factors."
What do you think about Landis' performance today? "I have a lot of respect for him, he is a great rider. Today, he had a sensational ride."
"We tried everything and we battled ourselves back into the race. Maybe it will be difficult for the time trial, but we will see what will happen. I will do my best in the time trial, but that's all. Now it's important to recover to be ready for the next couple of days. I will see what I can do."
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Andreas Klöden (T-Mobile, 8th at 7'08)
"At this Tour, anything's possible. I knew the climb, but I had bad legs today and just tried to follow."
Why didn't you try to follow Landis? "I don't play roulette that early in the stage - it was all or nothing. Landis had a hunger knock yesterday, and came back strong today. "Tomorrow, I'll just try to recuperate as much as I can and stay cool."
Michael Rogers (T-Mobile, 22nd at 12'34)
"The Joux-Plane was the hardest climb of the Tour. It wasn't the right day for me for that climb!
"Floyd went off like a motorbike, unbelievable! He was doing 40 km/h uphill! That he's able to rebound like this is fantastic. Congratulations to him.
"At T-Mobile, we had no tactics today. We just tried to hang on as long as possible. We thought the last climb would be the decisive one. Klöden had problems from the start; me too. We both struggled today. We never expected Landis to do so well today."
John Lelangue (Phonak team manager)
"Yesterday was an off-day for Floyd, but as I told him, we lost a fight, but not the war. I was convinced the Tour wasn't finished, and had a good chat with Floyd over a beer last night. We did in the Col des Saisies what is normally done in the last climb. It was a team effort, and then Landis could not be held back by anyone.
"I told him that he'd have to do two time trials in three days...
"I'm happy for him as well as for myself, because we received a lot of criticism about our team and our tactics lately. There was a lot of criticism on what we did during the last week. When Landis attacked, we didn't think about the GC, but we were thinking to come back on the podium. We wanted to win the stage to show that Floyd is a real Tour de France rider.
"There was just one day where Floyd was a bit less than usual. Everybody has that from time to time; we all have that day when we don't want to go to the office. We knew that after such a bad day, he could only be better today. We talked a lot, in his room and the restaurant, we drank a beer. We sorted out that maybe we had lost, but we shouldn't regret any decision we made during the race. There were still three nice days left to make something of our Tour de France.
"My father is a bit more realistic and he told me that the podium was still possible. Eddy Merckx called me as well, and he said that we maybe lost a battle, but not the war. If he says something like that, we definitely had to try something."
