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“We did everything _ we could to respect this [yellow] jersey. It’s a fight every day at the Tour de _ France. Everybody is getting tired physically but also tired of this stressful _ racing. Today, unfortunately for Sky they lost Wiggins.
_ _“If I had to chose _ who to hand my jersey to after my time in the lead, I would nominate my _ team-mate David Millar. He has worked hard for me all week and he’s only eight _ seconds behind. If he can take it from me, that would be nice… that would be _ the dream scenario.
_ _“This was _ certainly a different week to what I’m used to at the Tour. Wearing the yellow _ jersey for five days makes it feel like it’s ‘mission accomplished’. This, plus _ the win in the team time trial made it a perfect week. All I need is a stage _ victory.
_ _“Today HTC did a _ lot of work all day and we know they are among the best in the world to set up _ a sprint. They also showed this again today but that’s not a surprise. What’s _ more, Sky wasn’t there to compete against them.
_ _“The first week of _ the Tour is always nervous but this year the weather made it even more so, _ especially the wind. Everyone wants to be at the front and that’s what causes _ the falls.
_ _“Tomorrow we will _ not defend the yellow jersey because I know that I cannot follow the best at _ Super Besse. It’s time for others to take over and it’s now time for the _ favorites for the overall to step up.”
