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Interviews
Fothen – “We still want to support Levi…â€
The Gerolsteiner team ended the 52km race against the clock from Saint-Gregoire to Rennes with two riders in the top 10. Sebastian Lang set the early standard and held on to claim third place in the stage while the squad’s former under-23 time trial world champion Marcus Fothen earned seventh place; a result that puts him back in the lead of the youth classification. These were two reasons to celebrate but the team has questions about the performance of the designated leader Levi Leipheimer who lost over five minutes today...
“I have pain in my whole body but it’s been a really good day for the team because we had Sebastian Lang in third place, I’m seventh and so we have to be pleased. It’s a little bit of a shame that Levi lost five minutes and we’ll see what happens now.
“I haven’t spoken to Levi but I’ll see him in the hotel to find out what happened to him.
“I don’t think that our tactics will change: we’ll maintain the same approach that we had at the start of the Tour. We still want to support Levi.
“It was a difficult course today. It was up and down a little bit and the wind got stronger at the end of the stage. But I’m pleased with how things went today.
“It’s possible for me to take the white jersey all the way to Paris but our first remains to look after Totschnig and Leipheimer in the mountains… then comes the youth classification.â€
Serhiy Gonchar - "I feel young inside..."
There’s a little bit of confusion about the spelling of the name of the winner of stage seven, but there’s no doubt that Serhiy "Honchar" is a powerful time trial rider. The world champion from 2000 came to the Tour as part of a support for Jan Ullrich but the change in circumstances means that Gonchar is the new leader of the world’s most prestigious bike race...
“I’m very happy to win a stage and to take the yellow jersey but I don’t know what will happen in the coming stages. There are still a few days before we reach the Pyrenees and after that we will see what happens.
“I’m sorry for what happened with Jan (Ullrich) but I prepared one hundred per cent for the Tour and I think that what the team is showing up until now is that we are very competitive.
“At the start of today’s stage, I was feeling very good and I had absolutely no problems to push a very big gear ratio. I had a little crisis in the final 10 kilometers but I knew that I had to resist. But it was difficult because there was a strong headwind, still I told myself, ‘You have to push. You have to go…’ and that’s what I did. It was hard but I could sense that there was a big reward at the end.
“I’m not so young anymore but I feel young inside and that’s the most important thing. I want to thank the T-Mobile team because they really trust me and also because they gave me the option to prepare how I wanted to for the Giro and the Tour. That’s really important to me. If the sponsors and the team are happy, then so am I.
“My real name is Gonchar, with a ‘G’ but there was a problem with translation or a computer error when I got my passport which states Honchar, with an ‘H’. As a consequence, to avoid problems when I traveled, I had to change it on all my documentation so it’s now written with an ‘H’ but please call me Gonchar because this is my real name."
John Lelangue (Phonak) - "There’s no need to panic..."
Floyd Landis finished second in the stage despite a mechanical problem that meant he had to change a bike at the 13km mark. The Phonak manager is confident that his American team leader can continue to make an impression at the Tour even though he’s well aware of the potential challenge from other squads.
“The change of Floyd’s bike is just a detail. The most important thing was that he didn’t crash. Honestly, I didn’t even see what happened; I just saw him on the right side and stopped. The incident occurred at the 13km mark and we saw at the first time check (16.5km) that he was only 17 seconds behind Gonchar so there was no need to panic.
“He hung on well on the last part of the course unlike the others and I noticed that all the riders in our team adapt well in difficult situations, for instance when they’re riding into a headwind. I’ve always said that Floyd was a favorite of the Tour de France but he wasn’t The Favorite. First of all there are still a lot of contenders in the T-Mobile team but also elsewhere. Secondly, anything can happen on the Tour de France. There are still two more weeks of racing with the Pyrenees and the Alps yet to come so it’ll be very difficult.
“This first week past without any problems because we were riding in order to avoid problems. The team-mates have had a perfect approach and they are confident and their courage in the work they did. The next task starts tomorrow. We always have to check how the race is going and I remain wary of all the attacks because I know every can revolt.â€
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Saturday 8 July 2006 
