When Allan Gallopin was contacted by LeTour.fr this morning, the sports director of RadioShack-Nissan explained that race for the win in the team classification is still very much alive. “We want to maintain our position at the top the team standings. We have an advantage [over Sky] of 14'05”, but it is not a luxury because I think we will lose 8 to 10 minutes to Sky.
“We no longer have Fabian [Cancellara] with us, but we still have Klöden, Monfort, Zubeldia and Voigt, who can ride well. Normally this should suffice, but it will not be very difficult still as it's a long time trial and then there can be large gaps. This is why, at some times, I made certain choices with the team that haven't been popular... for example when Zubeldia was dropped on the Col de Peyresourde we didn't send riders back to help him. It was necessary that we maintained our lead in the team standings.
“If we can win the team classification with just six men left in the race it would be a great achievement. And, in terms of individual performances, there is not much danger to Haimar Zubeldia's position in the overall rankings being Brajkovic a bit too far behind. Furthermore, Andreas Klöden may possibly finish in the top 10 if it is in a great day today.”