Samu loses 3rd in final TT
- 40th, Samuel Sánchez, 5:51
- 104th, Alán Pérez, 8:25
- 110th, Rubén Pérez, 8:36
- 119th, Iñaki Isasi, 8:50
- 129th, Gorka Verdugo, 9:13
- 141st, Egoi Martínez, 9:42
- 168th, Iván Velasco, 11:31
Barring any mishaps on today's last stage, this is how the final GC will look like:
- 4th, Samuel Sánchez
- 37th, Gorka Verdugo
- 40th, Egoi Martínez
- 62nd, Iván Velasco
- 95th, Rubén Pérez
- 115th, Iñaki Isasi
- 129th, Alán Pérez
Speaking after the stage, Samu managed to hide his disappointment surprisingly well: "Giving it your all is all you can request. In that sense I'm satisfied as I did all I could. I thought that I did a good time trial. I felt good, but I wasn't even close to Menchov. I was pretty equal to Contador and Schleck who fought for the win, but the Russian has been flying and all I can do is to congratulate him. He was superb. We've been in the fight 'til the last moment and will come to Paris fourth overall. I would have liked to have finished on the podium, but all I can do now is to look forward." Igor González de Galdeano was naturally disappoined as well, but showed great sportmanship in congratulating Menchov on a good ride. "It's sad as we thought he could finish third", he said. "But it's been snatched away from us. But we're satisfied with our team performance as this is Euskaltel's best ever result in the Tour. There's no doubt Menchov was strong. He gained two minutes and we have to congratulate him as the Tour's not only won in the mountains, but in the time trials as well. Samu was great up until today. For some reason he wasn't at that level in the time trial. It's a shame, but once again we can only congratulate Menchov."
5 comments:
Very bitter, but after all, Samu couldn't have done anything about this, Menchov rode the best TT of all the GC contenders, and only Cancellara and Martin were better when you take the conditions in consideration.
But of course, that 4th place is always a nasty one...
I'm also terribly disappointed as well. These stupid TT's at the end of the Tour need some retooling. Not just because i sound like a jaded Samu fan, but it also negated the great battle between Shleck and AC. Hopefully next year we'll see a mountain TT, as it should be.
Hats off to you Sammy, you rode a stellar race and made us all proud. Gora Euskaltel!
Can't really agree, seeing how little TTing there were in this Tour. To win Tour de France, you need to be a complete rider, and that's how it should be ;)
I agree with keeping a Time Trial in, of course you need to be a complete rider. However, I'm more in favor of having the TT early in the race, therefore you have a chance to redeem yourself in the mountains if something goes wrong.
That's not a bad idea, and with Prudhomme as race director, I think that can happen (it sort of did last year). The routes seem to change character each year, it's not like a few years ago, when there always were a long TT early in the race AND on the last stage before Paris, often added with a TTT. Glad those days are over!
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