Absolutely happy about eighth place

“The last hundred kilometers were really hilly. In addition, the stage was 15km longer because there were some roadworks so we had to take a detour. The true race began from the feed zone at the 120km mark. We hit the foot of the climb in a group of seventy riders. I had three riders at my hand, which was great. We didn’t have to pull the group, the Saxo Bank and RadioShack took care of setting the pace,” Roman said.“Contador launched an attack on the final climb but I closed the gap immediately. But then Taaramae attacked and created a small gap but this time I was unable to catch him. I set my own pace and it was a small time trial. I can practically say that it was mostly me who was pulling our small group. Cummings attacked with some 600m to go and managed to win the sprint of our group”, he described.He himself was absolutely satisfied with his performance. “I was feeling great and I think we gave a good account of ourselves. As I said before, I am not riding for the GC but first and foremost, I take it as preparation,” Roman added. The Spaniard Contador came in second in today’s stage. “The Saxo Bank team proved to be strong and they helped him a lot. It was his first race and he proved that he can fight over the overall victory and after all, he can win overall if he succeeds in the final time trial.”3rd stage (Tavira-Malhao, 192 km): 1st Cummings (GBr./Sky) 4:56:19, 2nd Van Garderen (USA/HTC-Highroad), 3rd Contador (Spa/Saxo Bank Sungard), 4th Taaramae (Est/Cofidis), 5th Martin (Ger/HTC-Highroad) all the same time, 6th Machado (Por/RadioShack) +6, 7th Gerrans (Aus/Sky), 8th Roman Kreuziger (Cze/Astana), 9th Klöden (Ger/RadioShack), 10th Hesjedal (Can/Cervélo) all +16.Overall: 1st Cummings 14:30:47, 2nd Contador +6, 3rd Martin +10, 4th Van Garderen +12, 5th Taaramae +18, 6th Klöden +26, 7th Hesjedal, 8th Gerrans, 9th Poels (Ned/Vacansoleil) +30, 10th Machado +31, 11th Roman Kreuziger +34