Robbie McEwen - "I Came Here To Win A Stage"

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.