Pre-stage vox-pop | Cyclingnews

Cyclingnews' John Trevorrow was again our man on the spot at the start of stage 6 in Viterbo, where he cornered a few riders.

Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto)

We spoke to eventual stage winner Robbie McEwen, who was nursing a sore hamstring after yesterday's 223 km marathon. "Yeah I'm OK, but I've got a bit of a twinge in my hamstring so I hope it doesn't hurt too much today," he said. "It was hard yesterday, I just strained the inside hamstring a bit. I had it worked on last night and this morning by the physio. I'll still try and get amongst it though. Sprinters don't get many chances in this Giro."

Cyclingnews diarist Tom Danielson is one of the more talented climbers in the Discovery Channel team, but as he said to us, he's using the Giro to gain valuable experience. "I'm feeling good. It's my first grand tour. I've been told to sit back and relax for the first week, try to learn. The smart thing to do is not to go for every second, but stay out of it, try and learn not to waste all my energy in the first week and then have nothing left. It's more important that I'm there at the end for Paolo [Savoldelli], to be strong enough to be there at the finish, and learn from it.

"In the future I'd like to make this (riding grand tours) my job. For now I'm taking my time, learning, and working for Paolo. He's the leader and he's riding very well. I don't really know how I'm going to feel and what the last week is going to be like. I think those stages will suit me really well, I had really good form a couple of weeks ago. I don't know if that's going to go up, or go down, or what. I have to make sure that Paolo gets to the mountains in good condition. Because now there are a lot of good riders that can climb well and it's important that he gets there stress-free."

"It was pretty hard actually," said Hesjedal of stage 5. "A lot of guys were fried, we were going all day. The only soft part was the first 10 km. The first climb was pretty hard, the pace was on. Today is a pretty straightforward sprint stage I think. I imagine it'll be pretty active again. We'll just keep Paolo in good position, make sure he doesn't lose any time, and get ready for the time trial in a couple of days."

Unfortunately, kiwi Julian Dean didn't finish the sixth stage after crashing on the finishing circuit. We did speak to him before the start: "Yesterday was pretty hard. I woke up this morning and felt like I'd really ridden a stage of a grand tour. I hope everyone else is feeling the same. Today's pretty much a sprinters stage so we'll take it as it comes. We're looking for Fassa Bortolo to join on our lead out in the last five k, then move ourselves around them and make our move when we can."

Willo's teammate Russell Van Hout was also involved in a crash two days ago. "It bothered me yesterday because I had a really bad day," he said. "I was sore from the break, stiff from the crash, and I just want to get through the next couple of days until the time trial. But when you're out there, unfortunately the adrenaline starts flowing and you can't help yourself trying to get in some of those breaks."

"I felt alright yesterday, I even did a bit of a job at the end. It's a bit dangerous today with three laps at the end. I'll be up there taking Grillo up - it'll be a bit like the Bay Crits. Tomorrow, finishing in my home town, I really want to have a go at that. There's a 2 km hill, not far out, really steep. The way these guys are going, I probably won't be able to get away, but I'll give it a go."