Axel Merckx: When you're empty, you're empty

By Brecht Decaluwé in La Toussuire

Yesterday, Axel Merckx was hailed for his fantastic support towards Floyd Landis. Today, we had to ask the Belgian where the team was and what happened with his leader. "It could happen to anybody," he told us. "It's easy to attack the team now but we did what we had to do. We were supposed to bring him in a good position to the foot of the final climb, and we did. He's a great person and a great leader. We don't turn our backs on him because he had a bad day. It's sad, especially for him, because he wanted it so bad. But you can't forget that he already won Paris-Nice for us."

Landis arrived at the finish line together with Axel Merckx. Where did he catch up with the American? "Suddenly I saw that he was riding in front of me, next to the TV camera. I came next to him and tried to support him. That means being there, because you can't do much more … when you're empty, you're empty," concluded Merckx.