Roman Kreuziger - Team Liquigas

Sheltered transfer in the pack

Fri July 23, 2010, 19:38

The eighteenth stage of the Tour has not brought any changes in the general classification. Roman remains in ninth position and he believes that we will stay in top ten.

"The stage was difficult because of the wind and also the pace was really high towards the end, but for most of the stage I was sheltered so it was just a transfer. It is really a pity that Oss didn’t stay at the front to try and take the win. He showed a good performance but being alone at the front in the end must have been really hard because he had to struggle against the headwinds," Roman admitted. 
The tomorrow stage is an individual time trial in Bordeaux. "I guess that the wind conditions for every individual rider will play the decisive role. I will talk to my sport director to decide whether I should pre-ride the time trial course on the bike or just check it from the team car in the morning and then have a good warm-up. It might be better to save my legs because after the three days of hard racing everyone has had enough. I don’t think that the time-trial specialists will have a significant advantage, simply, those riders who have managed to save the most energy will fare the best. I know that Horner, for example, who is behind me in the GC, is a good time trialist. I expect a battle but we will see how things will develop. Anyway, I believe that I will keep my spot in top ten." 
 
18th stage (198 km): 1st Cavendish (GBr/HTC-Columbia) 4:37:09, 2nd Dean (NZl/Garmin), 3rd Petacchi (Ita/Lampre), 4th McEwen (Aus/Katusa), 5th Freire (Spa/Rabobank), 6th Boasson Hagen (Nor/Sky), ... 41st Roman Kreuziger (CZE/Liquigas).  
Overall: 1st Contador (Spa/Astana) 88:09:48, 2nd A. Schleck (Lux/Saxo Bank) +8, 3rd S. Sánchez (Spa/Euskaltel) +3:32, 4th Mensov (Rus/Rabobank) +3:53, 5th Van den Broeck (Bel/Lotto) +5:27, 6th Gesink (Ned/Rabobank) +6:41, 7th Rodriguez (Spa/Katusa) +7:03, 8th Hesjedal (Can/Garmin) +9:18, 9th Roman Kreuziger +10:12, 10th Horner (USA/RadioShack) +10:37

This article is also translated :
Transfer v háku