Michael Boogerd (Rabobank) (Image credit: Sirotti)
By Brecht Decaluwe in Gap
Michael Boogerd of the Rabobank team was quite often in the picture today. "The stage was very hard again, but I managed to be in the first escape. I could take points for the climbers classification and we forced Phonak to work, so that was alright." The Dutch champion was there as well on the last climb, where he was communicating with team-mate Rasmussen: "Yeah, we heard that Menchov had crashed, so we hesitated."
Toward the top of the hill, the Dutchman with the huge smile kicked clear. "I wanted to get the points," he said. Michael Boogerd is getting closer on De La Fuente in the climbers classification. Is the jersey a new objective for the coming days? "We just try to take as many points as possible. It doesn't matter too much, we'll see where we end up … Menchov is our first priority!" Boogerd made clear that he isn't considering the polka dotted jersey above the team interests.
