Bjarne Riis, 1996 Tour de France winner and the brain behind Team CSC, has given different media different versions of his squad's race tactics for the coming days. Right after the stage yesterday, he was asked by German television if he would give away the Yellow jersey now for Ivan Basso to get it back later, to which he replied, "We won't give it away for free but maybe we will have to. Ivan Basso proved at the Giro that he was the strongest rider there, had it not been for his illness. I think he will be great here too."
According to French paper L'Equipe though, the CSC team director will fight for the Yellow. "If Zabriskie keeps the jersey [after the time trial]," he said, "we will try to retain it as long as possible and give him two or three teammates for support. Not more, because we don't want the whole team to be tired afterwards," he explained. Just where the team director will draw the line remains thus to be seen.
