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Interviews
Oscar Freire - "I wasn’t sure..."
Rabobank’s sprinter Oscar Freire held off a late charge by Robbie McEwen but the Spaniard wasn’t going to celebrate until the jury confirmed that he was the winner. It’s his second stage victory in 2006 but he now has other objectives...
“I didn’t know that I’d won. Three months ago I was in another close finish in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and everybody said, ‘Oscar, you’ve won the race…’ but I found out afterwards that I’d been beaten. This time, I thought that perhaps I was in the first position but I didn’t see McEwen in the last 10 meters. After my previous experience I knew not to celebrate too soon. I thought that maybe I’d won but I had to wait for the decision of the jury.
“McEwen offered his congratulations immediately after the sprint but at that moment I wasn’t sure.
“The green jersey may be within reach but it’s not my biggest objective. I have another goal; I think that we now have very good riders for the mountains and the overall. We’ll see what happens in the next days but my ambition is to help the team now. Not only Michael Rasmussen, but Denis Menchov also.â€
Robbie McEwen - "Oscar was great today..."
Robbie McEwen anticipated a change of tactics from the Quickstep team and Boonen’s boys promptly delivered something different. After finding himself boxed in on the right side of the road, the winner of stages two, four and six just didn’t have the speed to match Oscar Freire... but he was almost there.
“I knew I had to try and steer my way out of a bad situation but I couldn’t get out until 100 meters to go and I just missed catching Freire. I was almost there – I passed everybody – but he was just too strong to catch today. The first phase of this Tour could have gone better: I could have won every single sprint but I’ve won three, I’ve been second and have won a sprint for fourth and I’ve also been fifth. To get to the mountains and not have a day out of the top five and to have the green jersey, isn’t too bad.
“We’re almost at the half way mark of the Tour but the hardest part is yet to come. For me it’s been fantastic so far and I’m going to keep trying to defend the jersey.
“Oscar looked at me and asked, ‘Who won?’ He really didn’t know and he didn’t dare claim it. But I told him he’d done a good ride because I knew straight away. I knew I didn’t catch him.
“As a sprinter you see things clearly: you may not be sure if you’ve won but you’re always sure if you’ve been beaten.
“Being strong and fast is what wins sprints and that’s what Oscar was today. He had a little bit better position than me. Our tactics the past few days was to come from behind and drag race the others to the finish. I didn’t expect that to work three times in a row though. I thought Quickstep would try something new and that’s what they did. They started on the left, went to the right, back to the left… they changed direction all the time. I anticipated this happening but still got blocked in. It’s a bit disappointing to not ride the sprint exactly how I wanted to but that’s how it is with racing and Oscar was great today."
Christian Knees - "We had to go..."
Once in a while an escape group will succeed. The most aggressive rider in stage nine was Christian Knees; he instigated The Escape of the day at the seven kilometer mark and was still prepared to go on the attack in the finale in an attempt to get ride of his companions Walter Beneteau and Stephane Auge. This trio was caught just three kilometers from the finish...
“The two other guys worked a little bit less than me because they wanted to save their power for the end but there really was nothing to save: we had to go as fast as possible. That’s why I attacked a few times at the end; I wanted to go alone because I think I would have been faster than I could with them following me.
“It was part of the team plan to be aggressive today. We wanted to have one rider in the break today and that’s exactly what was achieved. I thought we could hold onto our advantage for a while but when you have all the sprinters’ teams working together in the chase, it’s difficult. Still, we tried and that’s the most important thing.â€
Jerome Pineau – “I’ll know early tomorrow…â€
Jerome Pineau has led the climbing classification for seven days and today he knew that he would maintain his lead for at least another stage. On a day devoid of any hills, he simply followed wheels all the way to the finish. That’s not going to be the case tomorrow when the race arrives in the Pyrenees.
“I had the chance to wear the polka-dot jersey in the first week and it’s been a pleasure to realize that objective. After the stage to Valkenburg my legs felt heavy and it was difficult to maintain the momentum but the jersey is still on my shoulders.
“I hope that there is still some hope for me in the coming days but each stage I spend in the lead of the climbing classification is a bonus. It’s going to be hard to in the days ahead there’s no doubt about that but the benefit for me is that I’m no threat to the general classification.
“In the mountains, you can’t hide. If you’re good, you can limit your losses but if you’re bad it’s catastrophic. I’ll know early tomorrow how things are going because that’s when the real test begins.â€
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Tuesday 11 July 2006 
