Davis: That was awesome

Allan Davis is more commonly known as a bunch sprinter but today, like George Hincapie, the Liberty Seguros rider was up the road on the mountain leg of the Tour. The Australian was part of a fourteen-man break which went clear in the first thirty kilometres of the stage and while he lost contact with the front runners on the Col du Peyresourde, he was still ahead of Armstrong, Basso, Ullrich and co. starting the final climb of the race. This gave him a pretty unique viewpoint of what it's like to be a top Tour star.

"It was awesome, something I will never forget," he told Cyclingnews' John Trevorrow. "Goosebumps stuff, to be there on the toughest day of the Tour on the toughest climb of the Tour, riding next to Lance and Basso with the crowds screaming...just unbelievable."

"I came here with pretty good form and this is a great team. There are lots of guys who help out a lot and Stevo (Neil Stephens) has been fantastic, he just motivates me."

Davis describes the day as the "hardest ride I've ever done". So why did he go up the road?

"It was just to help the GC riders," he says. "Once we got the big gap, then I thought I may as well get as far up the road as I could. I won the first sprint, but then a couple of the Italians had a problem with me going for the second so the boss (Manolo Saiz) said save it for later."