Roman Kreuziger – Unofficial
“I´m feeling close to perfect. I arrived with Kiserlovski in the main bunch and I think that things are looking great for our team. Now the relatively easy stages are to come even though there isn’t a single flat stretch. The bottom-line is to survive and I guess that the last three days will be crucial in this race. The time trial is scheduled for Friday and both weekend´s stages feature mountain-top finishes. Overall, the race is really difficult,” Roman said.The Portuguese rider Rui Costa grabbed the win today. “Thumbs up for him, he was the strongest today. He attacked with 500m remaining and was able to come past Schleck. Nobody could match him, otherwise they would have followed him,” Roman praised the winner. “RadioShack put the hammer down on the closing climb and the pace immediately picked up. Toward the end somebody riding in front of me made a sudden swing to the right and I was very close to falling. I had to unclip both shoes and I touched the ground but luckily, nothing serious happened,” described Roman his little collision. “Then we missed out on the finale a bit but we didn’t lose much time anyway.” 2nd stage (Verbania-Verbier, 218.3km): 1. Costa (Por/Movistar) 6:21:13, 2. F. Schleck (Lux/ RadioShack-Nissan) +4, 3. Nieve (Spa/Euskaltel) +12, 4. Caruso (Ita/Katusha), 5. Pinot (Fra/FDJ) +13, 6. Roche (Irl/AG2R) +16, … 10. Roman Kreuziger (Cze/Astana) +22.Overall standings: 1. Costa 6:31:22, 2. F. Schleck +8, 3. Roman Kreuziger +15, 4. Pinot +19, 5. Roche, 6. Löfkvist (Swe/Sky) oba +21.
