Andrey Kashechkin (Liberty Seguros-Würth Team), 2nd
"I had good sensations today. It was my first experience of riding a time trial with Manolo Saiz behind me. It's the first time a coach kept talking to me constantly during the race. I enjoyed it."
Bradley McGee (Française des Jeux), 3rd
"I'm happy with my performance. I've never had such a good form in the early season. It's only the second time I'm doing Paris-Nice, the first one was as a neo-pro in 1998. Everyone told me about the wet road when I started, but I had blurry eyes because of the cold and I didn't notice it. All I know is I made a lot of time up in the descent. This was my tactic. It's a well programmed race for me. A couple of stages interest me towards the end of the week but I'm not confident to put my hands up for GC. I'll have a similar approach of this race as the Tour of the Mediterranean: work with Tommy (Swedish teammate Thomas Lövkvist) and be up there."
Benoît Vaugrenard (Française des Jeux), 8th
"I came here with the ambition of a top 15. I knew the course was good for me. I rode it in my mind many times this week. I'm happy with my result but I know I have to improve my technique. I was three seconds ahead of Brad McGee at the top of the hill and three seconds behind him at the end. I've lost all the time in the downhill and cornering. I'm highly motivated for Paris-Nice."
Rik Verbrugghe (Cofidis), 10th
"I'm still missing the turbo. It'll come with kilometres of racing and the rhythm of the competition. I'm always OK at Paris-Nice but never exceptional. My big goal this year is the prologue of the Tour of Italy in Seraing anyway."
Christophe Moreau (ag2r), 66th
"I decided to ride the prologue flat out, although I wasn't in the ideal conditions. Because of the snow at home in Switzerland, I had to travel by train and I arrived late last night. I went to bed at 1.30 this morning and I had a wake up call at 7.30 for a blood test. I also got my time trial bike only this morning. I was missing the good legs but it's a good start. My goal here is to improve my condition and work for our leaders Cyril Dessel and Mikel Astarloza. I'd like to be able to go for a breakaway at the end of the week. I look forward to see the sun again."
Erik Dekker (Rabobank), 69th
"About ten riders raced in the rain and I was one of them. It was me who chose to start early, so that proved to be the wrong choice. Mission impossible. I can't say anything else other than that I felt really good - there was power to my riding I think but I can't tell for sure. I have seven days to overturn my loss."
Also see: Prologue full results, report & photos.
