Hans-Michael Holczer – “Things don't look good for the future of this team...”

“We should have a new sponsor now but the situation remains unchanged. We have some talks and maybe we’ll have a decision soon but at the moment things don’t look too good for the future of the team. _ “I would never have expected to see Bernhard [Kohl] finish the Tour as the third best rider. I was calculating that he’d probably end in fifth or sixth place but I never believed that he would be fourth… so third place is a huge surprise for me. At the same time I never considered that Stefan Schumacher could win this time trial. _ “After the last four days, when he’s been so undiplomatic: he was just attacking, attacking and attacking. Everybody was saying that he would definitely not be able to be in the first five in the time trial. He never monitors his power he just went for it. He goes fast and that’s all he thinks about. _ “The radio didn’t work but we saw that the first check was very good and we knew he had some potential. In the middle he was losing a little bit of force which is something I think he did on purpose and in the end he accelerated to the maximum and that’s how he won. _ “Bernhard is in a terrible state after the stage today. We’re looking for a doctor because we’re a little bit concerned at the moment. He was at the point where he is really at the maximum degree of exhaustion.”