Iban speaks of stage 8 heroics

After claiming second on today`s stage, Iban spoke to Saunier Duval`s homepage. Here`s what he said: "To tell you the truth, I was hoping to be in the lead, because yesterday I felt fine. But the Tour is a treacherous race, and you can never be 100 percent sure. In the early kilometres I could see that I was OK, so I knew I´d be right up there with the best. When Rasmussen broke clear and began to open a gap, I realised that winning the stage was going to be extremely difficult. Before the final climb, his advantage was so huge that victory was no longer a possibility for me. At the foot of the mountain, Moreau launched an attack and I jumped clear behind him with Valverde. Then Evans, Contador, Kashechkin, and Schleck joined in, but they didn´t seem to be willing to cooperate. We were running into the wind, so drafting was the most comfortable option. This balanced forces, but Moreau was riding too easily. It´s a pity that we couldn´t hold off the Vinokourov group. With 500 metres to the top, I launched an attack to get the bonus points and seconds, and I succeeded. After having been through such a bad patch in the last editions of the Tour, being here, safe and sound, feels like victory to me. My only clear goal is grabbing a stage-win, as I said before I came here. Of course, the GC is tempting; stepping onto the final podium would be very nice. But the Tour is a very difficult race, so we should take it easy, step by step. The important thing is to keep this feeling; the sensations I felt today. And then, if a stage-win or even something bigger comes, we´ll all be very happy.”