“What happened with Flecha and Hoogerland is a big shame because the worst was over with by then. When it happened, we slowed to see if they fell and then we looked to see if they could come back with us. But we soon realized that they had no chance. There was a stage win at stake, so Voeckler and Casar and I decided to continue riding.
“In the end, it’s true that there was a rematch of last year with Casar but Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne was very different because I didn’t know the final very well. While today I had studied the course and I knew there was a hill and then a turn at the finish. Above all, I had tremendous confidence – I felt very strong.
“We never knew what happened in the bunch [with the crash at 102km]. When the gap began to grow quickly, reaching almost eight minutes, we thought that Garmin had stopped riding to leave the responsibility of the race to other teams. In fact, we only learned about the crash after arrive in Saint-Flour.”
Interview
July 10
th
2011
- 19:27
Luis Leon Sanchez – “I had tremendous confidence...”
