By Brecht Decaluwé in Carcassonne
Discovery Channel team manager Johan Bruyneel knew that his riders were disappointed after yesterday's stage. He had to come up with a different message than that he would usually give out to his boys.
"I said this morning, 'Boys, you're all good riders," said Bruyneel. "We've come to this Tour de France with different ambitions and we are used to riding in another way. But for me there's no reason to believe that a good bike rider, who's in good health and who's motivated, can't win a stage. There's a lot of other riders who won stages, who are only half as good as you.'
"The boys really understood the message and they did it today, I'm very proud about that. I'm especially happy about how they worked during the stage. Hincapie tried to get into every break until he didn't have anything left in his body. Later on, Popo got into the right escape."
Lance is visiting the Tour de France in Gap, but has been keeping an eye on the Discovery team in the meantime. "Lance is following the race and we spoke each other yesterday. Today, during the final, he sent a message saying that he was very happy. He said that the best response after a disappointment, is an attack and a victory."
It almost seems impossible to believe that there's no-one left in Bruyneel's team who can compete for the general classification. "We need to be realistic, as there are too many guys ahead of us in the GC. We don't want to fight for an eighth place in GC, so we're fighting for stage wins from now on. We don't want to leave this Tour de France in a bad mood."
