Roman Kreuziger - Team Liquigas

I completely understand Contador’s move

Mon July 19, 2010, 19:28

Roman felt much better in today’s stage of the Tour than he did yesterday. He set his own pace on the climb, erased some seconds on the leading group on the downhill and was relatively happy.

"Yesterday I lacked the power but today I felt much better. I knew that I had to set my own pace on that climb so this is why I didn’t react to any attacks at all. I was in a good group with Rodriguez whose teammate from Katusha Ivanov waited for him. On the summit we were one minute behind Gesink and in the finish the gap was only thirteen seconds. I am quite content even though I would be happier if I had finished a little bit more up at the front," Roman said. 
If he has good legs like today he trusts that he will do well in tomorrow’s tough stage. "But if I am suffering it can very well happen that I will ease off and lose, say, 40 minutes and then I would try to grab a stage victory on Thursday. Nonetheless, so far it appears that I will rather fight for the GC. I still hope that somebody will drop out of top ten." 
Contador donned the yellow jersey after the stage. When Schleck’s chain dropped three kilometers before the summit the Spaniard hit the gas. Many claim that it was unfair but Roman is clear about this issue. "He only paid him back for what he did to him in the stage on the cobbles. When Frank Schleck went down, the road was almost blocked for a while and Andy kept riding hard so he could gain time on Contador. He just gave him a dose of his own medicine today so I completely understand his move. It is not absolutely fair but Schleck deserved it. 
 
15th stage (187.5 km): 1st Voeckler (Fra/Bbox) 4:44:51, 2nd Ballan (Ita/BMC), 3rd Perez (Spa/Footon-Servetto) both +1:02, 4th Mondory (Fra/AG2R), 5th Roberts (NZl./Milram), 6th Reda (Ita/Quick Step), 7th Contador (Spa/Astana), 8th S. Sánchez (Spa/Euskaltel), 9th Mensov (Rus/Rabobank), 10th Vandborg (Den/Liquigas) all +2:50, ... 13th A. Schleck (Lux/Saxo Bank) +3:29, 19th Roman Kreuziger (CZE/Liquigas) +4:08, 32nd Basso (Ita/Liquigas) +5:44.  
Overall: 1st Contador 72:50:42, 2nd A. Schleck +8, 3rd S. Sánchez +2:00, 4th Mensov +2:13, 5th Van den Broeck (Bel/Lotto) +3:39, 6th Gesink (Ned/Rabobank) +5:01, 7th Leipheimer (USA/RadioShack) +5:25, 8th Rodriguez (Spa/Katusa) +5:45, 9th Vinokurov (Kaz/Astana) +7:12, 10th Hesjedal (Can/Garmin) +7:51, 11th Roman Kreuziger +7:58, 12nd L. Sánchez (Spa/Caisse d Epargne) +8:19, 13th Sastre (Spa/Cervélo) +9:02, 14th Basso +9:15.

This article is also translated :
Contadora naprosto chápu