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Interviews
Denis Menchov - "I feel satisfied now..."
The Rabobank team employed perfect tactics at crunchtime on the toughest stage so far in this year’s Tour de France. They had Juan Antonio Flech in the The Escape, Mickael Rasmussen collected some climbing points and then worked hard to set up the finale for Denis Menchov... but only after Michael Boogerd blasted forward to rid the lead group of many top contenders. Once the Dutch champion’s job was done, Denis Menchov was able to make the crucial selection and outsprint Levi Leipheimer and Floyd Landis to win the stage.
“The last few kilometers were hard because today’s stage had a lot in it. The final climb was not so hard but after 200 kilometers it is difficult for sure. It was important for me to stay with Floyd Landis and (Carlos) Sastre but I’m satisfied now.
“For me it’s important to win the first big test of this Tour. Now I have more confidence and I’ve seen what riders are going well and I’m one of them.
“I feel good today and I will thank my team-mates afterwards. All the team was good today: Michael Rasmussen was great and Michael Boogerd also very impressive.
“I was waiting almost two weeks for this day and it’s good to be able to perform when it’s important. We will see what happens in the coming days and I know that it’s really hard in the last week so I don’t want to say what I can do from here.â€
Floyd Landis - "Everything is fine..."
"I’m just trying to soak it all up," said Landis as he waited for the first of many formal interviews on the day he took the yellow jersey in the Tour de France. He finished third in the stage and, thanks to the eight-second time bonus, muscled his way into the overall lead at the first mountaintop finish of the 2006 race. He was coy when the interviews began but pleased with his effort nonetheless. Confidence will come with knowing he has lived up to his own high expectations.
“I didn’t know whether I’d get the jersey or not; I just worked hard to try and get as much time as I could on the other guys once I saw they were dropped. I didn’t expect to win the stage but I am happy. I didn’t do the majority work of splitting the group up but once Rabobank isolated a few guys, it was up to me to do the work because that was the moment when there was the most to gain.
“I would have liked a little more help but there was a tailwind most of the time and I didn’t get much assistance at the end of the day.
“We came here telling everyone we were going to win; that’s been our objective from the beginning. We’re a long way from the end but so far, we’ve done our job.
“We’d like to keep the yellow jersey for as long as possible… Paris would be the right place to stop wearing it.
“I’m satisfied with how the race has gone. We’ve still got half way to go but up until now everything is fine.
“I don’t know exactly what the time differences are, I have to look at the results before I declare who I think the biggest rivals will be. Things change a lot after the first day in the mountains: some guys suffer a bit on the first uphill finish and there are three difficult mountain stages to go. I wouldn’t write anybody off at this stage.â€
John Lelangue (Phonak) – “The others attack for him…â€
Floyd Landis has the yellow jersey on his shoulders after 11 stages. His team manager explains Phonak’s tactics for the day…
“The objective of the day was not to take the jersey from Cyril Dessel, he’s a rider who deserves to lead the Tour for a little bit longer and he’s not amongst the real favorites for the Tour de France. That’s one of the reasons why we didn’t opt for a strong attack until the final two climbs.
“We let T-Mobile take responsibility for the action on the Col du Portillon. We were a little bit afraid because we thought that they had to be really confident in Kloden to do this but when the selection was made we saw that Floyd was more solid.
“In reality Floyd had no real need to attack because the others did that for him. He just decided to maintain a rapid tempo in the final kilometers to increase the advantage he gained over some of his main rivals.â€
Cyril Dessel - "I’ve got no regrets..."
After a day in the lead of the Tour de France, Cyril Dessel’s name has been etched into cycling history. He may have lost his overall lead by just eight seconds - the time of the bonus gained by Floyd Landis for his third place finish - but he’s got no regrets for the way he raced in stage 11.
“No one informed me about the time bonus gained by Landis at the finish so I thought I’d keep the jersey for another day until my team director told me otherwise. I gave everything that I had to offer; it didn’t work but I have no regrets. It was difficult from the moment that T-Mobile accelerated but I still gave a full effort because I didn’t want to disappoint my team-mates. They worked so hard for me but my legs were more and more heavy as the stage went on so it didn’t work. That’s life and I have to accept that.â€
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Thursday 13 July 2006 
