Cadel Evans (Davitamon-Lotto)
Memories of the tour so far?
"First day a fifty year old woman tried to wrestle me off my bike at the sign on just so I would say hello from her to Axel Merckx. She didn't even know who I as, didn't even care. Some of the worst things are people in the crowd who are looking the opposite way to what we are coming because everyone else will get out of the way when we see the bunch coming. 180 riders on a 5 meter bit of road there is not a lot of space, and when one person is looking the other way he is left standing in the middle of the road. The other day Freddy (Rodriguez) was taking me to the front of a climb and there was this guy standing in the road. I don't know how he held it up because we must have been going at least 65 km per hour. Anyway, there is one enormous guy in the middle of the crowd and Freddie had to suddenly swerve; his bike was on a 45 degree angle to mine, he just missed the guy. I don't how he held it up and don't know how I did either.
Then there are the ones who have their jacket hanging over. There was one climb earlier in the week...I was going up the edge of the road and I caught my handle bar in someone's jacket. Then I heard an Aussie voice call out. I don't know whose jacket it was, but I was lucky to stay upright then. Yeah you can certainly tell the experienced from the non-experienced. Here comes the race: some jump out of the way while the others just stand there.
It's going to be hard today, you've got the Telegraph and the Galibier which are virtually one climb. You go over the top of the Telegraph, you have a quick 5km decent and then you are straight into the Galibier. Its like 40 kilometres of climbing and that's 20 odd kilometres after the Madeleine. All on small roads, too, so its going to be pretty tough."
Allan Davis (Liberty Seguros)
"Yeah tough day yesterday, got myself into the gruppetto. Today I'll be even tougher. You just have to get yourself into the grove of travelling at the speed that you feel comfortable with, and get through the best way you can. For me I have a couple of stages I am eyeing later on so I will just take it as easy as I can.
Brad McGee (Francaise des Jeux)
- You must be disappointed with yesterday?
"Yeah really disappointed and disillusioned."
Was it anything to do with the hunger flat problem of the past?
"No, I didn't feel bad, I just couldn't stay with them."
Stuart O'Grady (Cofidis)
"It should be a pretty hard day but most of the big hitters will be a bit shell-shocked. They took a bit of a hiding yesterday so it might be calm. I think it's the guys who are ten minutes down that will go for a stage win today, rather than the GC riders who took a big blow to the head yesterday."
Baden Cooke (Francaise des Jeux)
"Yesterday was a bit of a rest day as far as mountain stages go, with a long flat section before the first climb. We were never in any danger with the time,. Today will be another story, we will be on the limit at the start. Well, most of us will."
