Kohl "hedging" in the time trial

Team Gerolsteiner's Bernhard Kohl wanted to do as well as possible in the Dauphiné's time trial, to check out his form and his new position. The team reviewed the route in the morning, to know how to ride it best and handle the difficulties it might present. Unfortunately, the little Austrian misinterpreted some of those difficulties.

"From the very start I had a good feeling," he wrote on his website, bernhardkohl.at. At the first intermediate timing he was only five seconds down and in the second climb he was even in the lead. But the descent proved to be his downfall.

"After viewing the course I thought that I could ride the first curve full out. Well, that wasn't the case. At 60 km/h, I went off the road into a hedge. Thank goodness it was a hedge and not a wall. I came away with light bruises and one little scratch from the plant."

His visit into the vegetation cost him "20 to 30 seconds," but he still finished in a respectable 18th place, 2'30" down.