Phonak's team manager John Lelangue has given french daily L'Equipe some clues as to how the Swiss squad will aim for victory in the upcoming team time trial. "The team's lead-out on Tuesday will be Robert Hunter," he said. "He will be in charge of the first acceleration and of finding the rhythm of the journey, not too fast. Then, we will have the real specialists Pereiro, Botero, Landis; then those who perform well in this exercise, Grabsch, Gutierrez, Jalabert; then those who are not in their element: Moos and Zampieri. The lead turns should not exceed 30 seconds for the best riders, 20 for the others."
Lelangue continued by describing the course to Blois, which starts to become hilly with about 45 kilometres to go. "Our strategy is to ride into the last 15 kilometres, which are more technical, with nine men. We will try to be complete until then, even if Zampieri and Moos have to skip some turns for it. Ideally, the team should still consist of seven riders before attacking the Côte de Molineuf with 11 kilometres to go. That's where the teams will start losing their riders. Our aim, of course, is to have our three leaders within the five at the finish!"
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