Alessandro Petacchi – “I'm here to win stages...”

“Today I proved I could win in all circumstances. I've heard more or less some comments saying that the victory was that of Brussels 'old man', but this time I have received no advantage because of crashes of my rivals..
“I want to thank my team because it is through them that I participate again in races at this level. Now, with two wins, I could very well go home and consider that my job is finished. Two wins on the Tour de France is already exceptional. Besides, after the first, I was talking with Oscar Freire and he told me that I could already taste my Tour, that everything else is a bonus. But I do not quite see things this way. I'm here to win stages, and I'll keep trying to do just that.
“The questions about my lead-out train is important, and I'm not the same as at the time of the Fassa Bortolo. But already in those years, I sometimes found myself alone and had to adapt to the situation. In the last two hundred meters I had to do sprints, I gained a lot of experience. So now I know how to ride this way. Today, I put myself in the Cavendish train. But it is true that my team must work to enrich the train to win more races. And that is what Mr Saronni intends to do in the future, because in this field, other teams are at very high level.”