Roman Kreuziger – Unofficial
“The whole stage dragged today and the final stretch before the finish was extremely dangerous. The roads were so narrow with 5km to go that hardly three riders could ride side by side and then the short steep climb came. When Gatto launched his attack I was in 13th position, or so. We were riding in line but I managed to hold on to the front group. Then Contador attacked and I was surprised to see that he was trying to do something in a stage like this,” Roman said.Roman felt good today and tried to save as much energy as possible for the tomorrow´s stage. “I have respect for this stage. First, a long journey in car lies ahead of us and then we will take a boat to get to the start, plus the stage is hard as hell. After the stage, we will fly to Pescara so it is going to be a really demanding day. We are going to get up before six o´clock and get to bed at around 2am,” he revealed.Roman has previously managed to pre-ride both climbs. “Those will be the first long and difficult climbs of this year´s Giro. Both of them begin rising practically from zero altitude and we will end up at some 2000m above the sea level. The weather should be favorable, which is important. The pace on the first one will play a major role. If somebody begins attacking there things will get nasty,” Roman added. 8th stage (Sapri – Tropea, 217 km): 1st Gatto (Ita/Farnese) 4:59:45, 2nd Contador (Spa/Saxo Bank), 3rd Petacchi (Ita/Lampre), 4th Kristoff (Nor/BMC), 5th Ferrari (Ita/Androni), 6th Appollonio (Ita/Sky), … 22nd Roman Kreuziger (Cze/Astana) +5. Overall: 1st Weening (Ned/Rabobank) 28:09:49, 2nd Sivcov (Bel-HTC), 3rd Pinotti (Ita/HTC) +2, 4th Le Mevel (Fra/Garmin) +5, 5th Contador +13, 6th Scarponi (Ita/Lampre) +14, … 14th Roman Kreuziger +44.