2007 Stage 3 Quotes
Levi Leipheimer (Santa Rosa, Calif.) General Classification Leader, Second Place Stage 3
Discovery Channel Pro Cycling TeamStage 3 Post-Race Comments
In general
“Today was a bike race, it was a real battle out there, and all the riders on Discovery suffered today, and I personally saw Allan (Davis) and Tony (Cruz) and Brian (Vandbourg) get dropped and come back, just suffering all day long.”
On the team effort
“Jason (McCartney) as well as the whole team was extraordinary today. The Discovery riders suffered today. We still went up the climb (Sierra Road) pretty fast, and Jason was phenomenal on this one… I think we did a great job to make it all the way to the finish. Fortunately, we didn’t panic. We accepted the fact that this was going to be an all-day adventure and an all-day suffer for the team.”
One step closer to overall?
“I would have liked to get to the finish with a minute over that group, but from the sounds of it they were pretty close to us. I’m a long way from the overall victory. I’ve always said I would love to win here. I’m going to give it everything.”
Being motivated by Lance Armstrong from the follow car
“He understands that today was a real battle. He was 100 percent behind us cheering us on. It really made everyone dig, so it was special."
“He was saying things like: Come on guys, we can do this. We were discussing tactics. We were all trying to encourage each other. Today was a real bike race. It was a real hard one.”
On the crowds and the scenery
“The top of Sierra Road was fantastic. You’re talking about a beautiful piece of California. You come over the top of a climb like that, and you have goosebumps. It really shows how beautiful this state is."
On feelings about how the stage would go
“I’ve done this long enough to tell which days are going to be hard. I could tell that people were saving it for today and were going to hit us hard.”
Jens Voigt (GER) Winner Stage 3, Adobe Most Aggressive Rider Winner
Team CSCStage 3 Post-Race Comments
On the way the race went
“There’s never such a thing as an easy race. I just followed a couple of moves at the start."
On the forthcoming time trial
Dave (Zabriskie) is always good in a time trial. It will change our plans a lot to lose Dave. The whole first day was not good for us. With two stage wins, we are more than happy now…. We will see. It’s the first race of the year, so it’s a little bit of the unknown. We had our little secret time trial in our training camp (two weeks ago). I think I came in second, I was beaten by one or two seconds by Fabien Cancellara (in a 5-6 km time trial).”
On the motivating the breakaway
I figured ‘Okay boys, it’s now or never! The finish line is in front of us, it’s not behind us so you can’t look back.’ I would say everybody worked as good as he could. Some riders were intimated by that massive climb at the end of the stage. It was really nice how we shared the work.
In the closing 20km, with the bunch just behind, did you think you could win?
Yes. I was waiting for my captain Bobby Julich so I was not working. I could save my legs a bit. They were actually going really fast (Leipheimer, Horner, McCartney) I have to say (big smile). Big chapeaux (hats off) to the guys who were swapping off there. I could save my legs a little bit, I thought it should be possible to win that stage. I am never going to win a sprint with Tom Boonen, but in a little group like five riders I figured I had a fair chance.
On his main rival
“Sure, we’ve got a fair chance, but also Levi’s got a fair chance. He’s a great rider, and it was only 15 seconds to the group behind us… it’s hard to say where it goes from here.”
Chris Horner (USA) Third place, Stage 3
Team Predictor LottoStage 3 Post-Race Comments
On strategy
“Discovery had to ride all day, which they did a fantastic job of keeping the break close. But for us it was really important that Discovery had to ride a lot, so that when we reached the climb I was only dealing with one fresh Levi, instead of a fresh Basso and a fresh Danielson and all that. I knew if it was just Levi, he’s on another page ahead of the rest of us on the climb, and certainly could’ve gone over the climb by himself, but I know he knows to make it to the finish he’s going to have to wait for me too, so it works out to my benefit if he’s all by himself. So our strategy was to do nothing all day. We’re here to win stages. My time trial has been letting me down a lot, so the GC wasn’t something I was thinking about. I was only thinking about winning the stage. In order to do that we needed a stage like today that was perfect for me, but of course I screwed up on the finish and Jens (Voigt) won.
“Certainly, the Slipstream team has been riding really well. Still very aggressive so hats off. They’ve been probably the most that’s impressed me, how well they’ve been riding here.
