Schumacher preparing for Tour

By Shane Stokes in Verbier

Gerolsteiner rider Stefan Schumacher finished 97th on Thursday's sixth stage of the Tour de Suisse, crossing the line 11'44" behind victor Kim Kirchen (High Road). However, he was relaxed about the result afterwards, saying that his priority was to get ready for the Tour de France.

"It was not my day," he told Cyclingnews. "I didn't feel very good because of the heat and the last climb was very hard.

"For me, this race is preparation for the Tour. My goal is to win a stage there. My condition is okay, yesterday I felt good and today was also okay. I will try to win a stage here, maybe I can go for it tomorrow or Sunday. We will see. I am relaxed, I will see if I can take a chance."

In 2004, the German was second in the national road race championships, netting silver behind Andreas Klöden. He will target this race again before the Tour de France, but there is a slight complication.

"I will target the road race, for sure. But I have to also do the time trial championships, so it is not so easy. That is on Friday and the road race is on Sunday. I want to do the Olympics so I need to do it to qualify. Anyway, I will try to win one or the other."