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Interviews
Robbie McEwen - "I Came Here To Win A Stage"
From his nine starts in the Tour de France, Robbie McEwen now has a tally of nine stage victories. He didn’t participate in the intermediate sprints that he believes may have sapped the energy of his two main rivals, Tom Boonen and Thor Hushovd. Instead he saved himself for the finale and, despite a slight scare when Hushovd’s front wheel touched his foot in the frantic rush he concluded the day the way he wanted.
I know Tom is strong. I expect Boonen and Hushovd to be strong but they’re not the only strong sprinters here and today I showed that today I was stronger.
I’ve spoken to Thor after the finish. We both stood together and watched the video. Thor came with his front wheel against my left foot. From what I remember of the sprint, I started in the wheel of O’Grady, Zabel started the sprint with O’Grady on his wheel. I went to pass both of them and O’Grady tried to go to the left of Zabel. I went a bit more left but, from there, I rode a direct line to the finish. With 100m to go I felt something against my foot and I tried to pull to the right a little. I later saw that it was Hushovd but there was nothing bad and we both spoke about it and we’re still friends. So it was no problem.
I can say for sure that it helped me to stay fresh at the finish by not doing the intermediate sprints. As for those guys, I don’t know if they feel better after doing a few sprints before the final or if they feel worse. Some guys like to get their motor running by doing some intermediate sprints and others are better when they rest and save everything for the finish. I can’t comment about Thor and Tom, but everybody has got to know for themselves what they want to do. If they want to sprint for two points throughout the stage and try to take the yellow jersey or if they’re happy, like me, to put all their eggs in one basket and go for the stage win when you get 35 points.
I came here to win a stage and I’m not interested in sprinting for two point out on the road. But everyone comes here with a different idea of how they’re going to do it and today mine was the best way, I guess.
Hushovd - "I want to keep it as long as possible..."
After ending the first stage in dramatic fashion - losing his yellow jersey because of being cut on the arm while sprinting for stage honors - Thor Hushovd returned today to make amends. He claimed time bonuses at intermediate sprints and finished third at the finish. He is now back in yellow, the colour of the jersey he wants to keep as long as he can.
It’s true that I felt pain for the entire stage but what is really strange is that, once the sprint began, I didn’t feel the pain. I think it has something to do with the adrenaline rush.
This morning I was already feeling confident about regaining the yellow jersey. I knew it was possible because two seconds is a very short time but I was afraid about Tom Boonen because he’s very close to me in the general classification.
In the end, everything worked out well. The other good news is that my arm, while still painful, is better and better.
I’m sure it will improve in the coming days and I’ll do everything I can to keep the jersey as long as I can.
Benoit Vaugrenard -
The Frenchman who earned the white jersey with a bold escape in stage one of his debut Tour retains the lead in the youth classification for another day.
I really had a good day yesterday. Everything went really well and I wanted to wear the jersey with pride. I was hoping to get the lead in the young rider classification in the prologue but I missed that opportunity.
Anyway, today was a long stage but I think I wore the jersey with honour.
In the finale my team-mate Philippe Gilbert was riding aggressively and he’s improved his position on GC by adhering to the strategy we devised at the start of the day.
Personally, I was right in the middle of the peloton when there was a crash and there was little that I could do about it. Hopefully no one was too badly hurt. Right now I’m just happy to have kept the jersey because there’s only a small margin in it at the moment.
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Monday 3 July 2006 
