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Tour News for July 12

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Stuart O'Grady (Credit Agricole, 1st stage & Maillot Jaune)

Credit Agricole
Photo: © Sirotti

"C'est Génial!! What a team! It's fantastic and really deserved. My team mates gave everything. Roger Legeay really knows how to prepare a team."

"The parcours was very heavy and it was very slippery. Especially during the last few kilometres I suffered. I'm having another day in Yellow but I have no ambitions of finishing up high in final GC. Our victory was a deserved one, but we never hoped for it on forehand. We did train here, we arrived last Wednesday and scouted it, we knew what it was like."

"Before the start I felt really tired and my legs were hurting but thanks to the collective effort we managed to win. All my teammates deserve a yellow jersey really."

Jens Voigt (Credit Agricole, 1st stage & 2nd GC)

"It was a very special day. We rode so well. I'm happy with this victory; it's good for the team's moral. Tomorrow, we're going to defend the yellow"

Sébastien Hinault (Credit Agricole, 1st stage)

"Voigt, Vaughters and Hushovd were the best. We hoped to finish in the top three first and, finally, we marched formidably. We had ridden the course on Wednesday of the French championship, so that we knew it well. At the beginning, we were stressed but relaxed during the race. Our performance was inestimable.".

Roger Legeay (Credit Agricole directeur sportif)

"We hoped to make it into the top five. And why not keep the yellow jersey? Everyone was very motivated. This result went beyond our hopes. We keep the yellow jersey and, also have placed Bobby Julich, our leader, at the foot of the mountains, in an ideal position.

"Now, we will try to defend the jersey because we have three men in front in the general classification. We have several assets up our sleeve."

Igor González de Galdeano (ONCE, 2nd stage)

"What I predicted has happened. It was clear that the Credit Agricole team were going to be very strong and that it was going to be tought to win. It would have been nice to win today."

"Many thought it would have been too soon for me to be in the lead, but far from it because I do not have the class to choose when I want to be in yellow. The team is looking towards Paris, not only at this stage. ONCE watch Paris and trust Beloki, and me as a second alternative intended for a surprise."

The punctures of Alvaro Gonzalez de Galdeano and Santos Gonzalez were "very important, despite the great work of Sastre and Serrano."

Yvon Sanquer (Festina directeur sportif)

"We carried out a great performance today. We did not waste time on Telekom and US Postal. We did not have any problems and that was also essential. The team was homogeneous; we can be satisfied with our day. Everyone is pretty relieved."

US Postal
Photo: © AFP

Lance Armstrong (USPS, 4th stage & 15th GC)

"I am very satisfied with my team. It was reinforced for the mountains and we were afraid that we would be handicapped in the team time trial. I am very satisfied with my form, considering the distance of this time trial."

Johan Bruyneel (USPS directeur sportif)

"We knew that it would be tight between Telekom and US Postal. It was only 24 seconds but, without the fall (Heras and Vandevelde) which luckily is not too serious, the difference would have been 1 minute. The team organized itself well after the fall, it finished very well. I am really satisfied."

Dirk Demol (USPS assistant directeur sportif)

"Considering the circumstances; Heras and Vandevelde who fell; I think we rode a good time-trial. We had agreed beforehand to wait for Heras and Armstrong if anything happened. I think we've done well. Of course, having the yellow jersey gave Crédit Agricole wings today."

"I still believe in a duel between Lance and Ullrich. I don't think this is a bad situation, on the contrary. Crédit Agricole will have to control the race. Next week is a hard week. The Tour has only just started; you don't have to be in yellow too early!"

Jan Ullrich (Telekom, 7th stage & 19th GC)

Telekom
Photo: © Sirotti

"I am not disappointed. I didn't lose that much time on Armstrong. I never thought that the Team Time Trial would make a big difference between the big teams on GC. Today, we just had bad luck with Zabel, Heppner and Livingston. The biggest surprise to me was Kelme, at 1'38 of Credit Agricole."

Rudy Pevenage (Telekom directeur sportif)

"We expected to do better. We started slow and got better in the second half. Of course we had the setbacks of Zabel's puncture and Heppner's shoe was giving him trouble. We had to take it easy on the climbs so we had enough men for the finale."

Nico Mattan (Cofidis, 8th stage)

"I was 'a bloc' until the foot of the climb. We really swapped turns well the first 50 kilometres though;but we were all at 80 percent. We really don't have a team to win a time-trial; not enough power. It's only the first five finishing that count luckily; no use to try and finish with nine."

"This time-trial shows how different this Tour is. For the coming week, we're going to see a big group finishing way behind a small group of leaders. I think they might have to stretch the cut-off time on some occasions!"

Ludovic Capelle (Ag2r, 18th stage)

"The legs felt good today but I wasn't really super. The team doesn't have any good time-triallists, not like Crédit Agricole, ONCE, US Postal, etc. It was my very first team time-trial over this distance. I was lucky my legs were alright, but there was a strong headwind."

Rik Verbrugghe (Lotto-Adecco, 20th stage)

"Although we didn't ride a good time, the team was good. We did a good job rotating. The last 10 kilometres we had to do it with 5 guys. Having only 8 men at the start makes a hell of a difference. We were all riding on the same level today; we were a real team."

Ludo Dierckxsens (Lampre, 21st stage)

Lampre
Photo: © Sirotti

"A Team time-trial is always hard. The rain made it hard, you had to be vigilant at all times; and the headwind was strong. For us it's important we all made it to the finish."

Full stage results - Live report

A joyful scene in the Credit Agricole camp

By Sabine Sunderland, cyclingnews.com correspondent

There was nothing but happy faces, and lots of hugging and kissing in the Crédit Agricole camp after the finish. France TV visited the Credit Agricole bus after the stage and the images were simply fantastic. Father Brian O'Grady, mother Fay and fiancee Anne-Marie all look to be in seventh heaven while waiting for their boy to come in. Father O'Grady expressive as always, Stuey's mum all smiles from ear to ear. The Crédit Agricole riders are welcomed by an ecstatic Roger Legeay; hugs and kisses again.

Legeay comments: "The whole team was simply fantastic, all of them. It was a collective effort and it gives enormous satisfaction".

Watching these images, one can almost taste the satisfaction and happiness this team shares at this moment. Even though the tiredness will set in soon and the legs will need a lot of massaging, the guys look still radiant and glowing with the satisfaction of the fantastic reward after giving it all they had. Frederic Bessy and Sebastien Hinault share the excitement.

"This is great" Frederic says, "It is without doubt the best week of my career. The big teams worked hard all day yesterday; we were more at ease, this shows today. We'll now try to control the race the coming days and keep the yellow on Stuart's shoulders."

Frederic Bessy takes the opportunity to share some more joy with the team. "I want to dedicate this victory to my family. And I have some news : my wife and I are expecting a baby!"; more cheering!

While Jonathan Vaughters gives a demonstration of his singing abilities by reciting something that sounds like opera (really!), Roger Legeay looks confident his team will be there again for Stuart tomorrow.

A little note: Stuart can't have his mobile on during the night. Because of the time difference with Australia, he was on the phone most of the night during his days in yellow in '98. Roger Legeay thought it was better for him not to answer any night-time calls this time and friendly urged him to get the necessary sleep!"

Two punctures for Credit Agricole

The winning Crédit Agricole had to suffer two punctures today, on their way to a 31 second victory over favourites ONCE-Eroski. It was a superb, motivated performance, and tactics were vital to ensure that they didn't lose too much time with mechanicals. Anthony Morin was the first to puncture, and he was left by the team to finish on his own. Later on (before the final climb) Bobby Julich punctured. The team had no choice but to wait, as Julich is considered the team's leader in the mountains.

The team finished with five riders, after Frédéric Bessy was dropped near the finish.

Friday the 13th

Tomorrow is Friday the 13th. Inspired by this creepy date, the people of Belgian TV's Tourjournaal did a report on "superstition in the peloton", here's some snippets from the interviews.

Nico Mattan (Cofidis)

"Superstitious? I do hate number 13. I wouldn't like to start with number 13. Number 13 has a bad ring to me because I heard on a 13th that I wouldn't be able to race anymore because of heart problems. I'm now riding with number 76, if you add 7 and 6, it forms 13; don't even like that really. And I lost the leader's jersey in Paris-Nice on a 13th, so no, I don't like that number."

"And I do wear the same undershirt in important races; (takes a look under his jersey) it's getting a bit worn actually. And I won't walk under ladders, I'll go around them, won't walk underneath scaffolding either...well, the more we talk, the more I realize I'm quite superstitious."

Ludo Dierckxsens (Lampre)

"Superstitious? No, I'm not, don't stop to think about things like that. Nico wearing the same shirt? Yeh? Really, god, every day? (while pulling up his nose)"

Giuseppe Guerini (Telekom, wearing number 13)

"Superstitious? No, I don't think it will bring me bad luck; we'll have to wait and see. I didn't even realize it was Friday the 13th tomorrow. We'll see what happens, no?"

Stuart O'Grady (Credit Agricole)

"Superstitious? No,not really. Friday the 13th? Don't worry, it's only a movie. (pauses) I won't walk under ladders though, so yes, maybe I'm a little bit superstitious."

Fall for De Jongh

Rabobank's Steven de Jongh lost five minutes in today's team time trial from Verdun to Bar-le-Duc, after falling and losing contact with his team.

He ended up with grazes on his arm, shoulder and legs. It was "nothing serious" according to team leader Theo de Rooy, whose team finished 6th today.

Official communiqués

Weather today: Dry overall under a variable sky, both sunny and cloudy, during the crossing of Lorraine.
Tomorrow: The sky will be cloudier at the approach of the Vosges with the risk of a small downpour. The descent towards the plain of Alsace and the finish will be under a very cloudy sky but without much threat of rain.
Wind from the south-west from 10-30 km/h

Medical: Heras and Vandevelde (USPS): Fall without apparent seriousness
Casper (FdJ): Wound on the left elbow

Lotto does TV special

Belgian team Lotto-Adecco had a visit from the police before the start of the third stage on Tuesday, from Antwerp to Seraing. However, it wasn't a doping raid but for an episode of Kijk Uit, a TV program about traffic safety shown on VRT.

The wearing of helmets was an important part of the show. "The riders from Lotto are very appropriate to talk about this subject," said the director of the show. "We especially would like to persuade children that they should wear helmets. Their teammate [Tayeb] Braikia had a fall in the Tour of Murcia, and was not wearing a helmet. We will use this example in our campaign."

Helmet wearing is compulsory for cycle racing in Belgium, but not for normal cycling. A relatively large proportion of the population ride bikes, and schoolchildren in particular use them as the preferred mode of transport to get to school.

Country breakdown on stage 4

Occasional Cyclingnews numbers analyst, Scott Goldstein, did some calculations based on the results of stage 4, which saw over half the field finish 6 minutes or more behind. The following table shows the number of riders per nation in the leading group of 78, compared with the number of riders behind.

Is the USA really the dominant nation in this race, or is South Africa number one? That country's sole representative, Robert Hunter (Lampre) finished in the lead group, but he was counted amongst "others". Credit Agricole won the team time trial today with a very multi-cultural team, while ONCE finished second with a predominantly Spanish squad. Does the result mean a lot as some riders were told to save themselves for today? What is the meaning of life?

The Goldstein Breakdown

Nation      In    Out   % in front

USA          7     1       88%
Germany      8     2       80%
Colombia     2     1       67%
Spain       20    16       56%
Australia    1     1       50%
Italy        9    15       38%
Belgium      6    11       35%
Netherlands  3     6       33%
France      15    35       30%
Others       6    16       27%
Denmark      1     4       20%

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