Roman Kreuziger - Team Liquigas

Too bad the breakaway fell flat

Tue July 20, 2010, 18:47

Roman shone bright in today’s stage of the Tour. Early on he broke away with a group of strong riders but after 50 kilometers they were chased down. Despite this, he arrived at the finish in Pau without any difficulties together with all the favorites and remains eleventh overall.

"The attack was planned and my goal was to win the stage. I needed to be bolder so I went for it. I believed that it could work out because the group was really strong. We cooperated well and Szmyd set a perfect pace on the first two climbs but, unfortunately, we posed a threat to the leaders. For a moment the Astana guys went hard after us but in the end they would have let us go, I think. It was the Lotto team who put the hammer down and caught us," Roman said. 
"When we were caught it was no problem for me to keep up. I think that the riders at the back were suffering and later in the stage nobody went for an action. Nobody was interested in chasing the Armstrong’s group," admitted Roman whose teammate Basso went through hell and lost over 30 minutes. "He had a cold, cough and ran a slight temperature. It is no bed of roses to ride in such a state," Roman revealed. Despite his unsuccessful attack, he feels close to perfect before the Thursday’s stage with the finish on Tourmalet. "I noticed that some riders from the top ten have had hard times to keep up and if I ride as good as today it could be a great finish of the Tour on my part." 
 
16st stage (199.5 km): 1st Fedrigo (Fra/Bbox) 5:31:43, 2nd Casar (Fra/FDJ), 3rd Plaza Molina (Spa/Caisse d Epargne), 4th Cunego (Ita/Lampre), 5th Horner, 6th Armstrong (USA/RadioShack), ... 34th Roman Kreuziger (CZE/Liquigas) +6:45.  
Overall: 1st Contador (Spa/Astana) 78:29:10, 2nd A. Schleck (Lux/Saxo Bank) +8, 3rd S. Sánchez (Spa/Euskaltel) +2:00, 4th Mensov (Rus/Rabobank) +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.

This article is also translated :
Škoda, že únik nevyšel