Michael Rasmussen – “Now it's all about yellow...!”

“My team did a really good job controlling the pace until halfway up the Galibier. After that I got a little isolated when the attacks really started going but I have to expect that. Essentially only the top contenders are left and you can’t expect to have it all your own way and with a full team. I got attacked left, right and center… it felt like a million times but I just tried to follow them and eventually Evans got away. I chose to follow Valverde because he had a team-mate up the road and we could join forces and work together to reel in the riders who were ahead. _ “I attacked a few times as well. The team wants to protect the overall lead. Now it’s all about the yellow, obviously the polka-dot jersey is secondary. I’m in the lead by almost three minutes now. The next big test will be the time trial on Saturday and I believe I’ll manage to protect the jersey for the next four days. _ “The time trial is not a concern even if it’s not my specialty. I haven’t worked on it specifically but we have done some testing with the Rabobank team – visiting the wind tunnel and adjusted my position to try and refine some aspects of that discipline – and hopefully the result will reflect that I’m a little stronger against the clock than I was two years ago.”