Reactions from the Tour's 11th stage
Controversy and a change in the green jersey
Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) - second on stage, 146th overall @ 1:36:21: Cavendish and his team performed a perfect sprint: it was very difficult to precede them, even if Lampre-Farnese's work was very good.
I'm sorry I didn't win but I'm happy to have taken the green jersey: it's a beautiful prize for my teammates' effort and I'll try to keep it with me as long as possible.
Thor Hushovd (Cervélo TestTeam) - seventh on stage, 129th overall @ 1:28:06: Every sprint I do, I am not at 100 percent. I will keep fighting. We will see how we get over the mountains. I was too cautious today in the sprint. Everyone came past me, so I lost points today.
I know I am not as fast as last year in the sprint. My injury [a broken collarbone suffered in May] slowed down my preparation for the Tour. I feel like I am getting stronger day by day.
I am sure the green jersey battle will come down to Paris. I have to stay focused on doing my sprints and try to get as many points as possible. The Tour de France is long. Anything can happen. You never know what happens from one day to the next.
Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - 38th on stage, 18th overall @ 7:47: It's the bumps that really hurt. Hopefully, I'll be back to good level tomorrow to be able to stick somewhere within range.
There's a lot of guys like myself who are pretty tired and stiff and sore like myself. Hopefully, we'll have one more day to recover before we get too serious.
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Mark Renshaw (HTC-Columbia) - disqualified from stage and Tour de France: I'm extremely disappointed and also surprised at this decision. I never imagined I would be removed from any race, especially the Tour de France. I pride myself on being a very fair, safe and a straight up sprinter and never in my career have I received a fine or even a warning.
Julian came hard in on my position with his elbows. I needed to use my head to retain balance or there would have been a crash. If had used my elbows when Julian brought his elbow on top of mine we would also have crashed. The object was to hold my line and stay upright.
I hadn't started the sprint yet. We were still at 375m to go. After that Cavendish had to start his sprint early and I was also ready to finish off the sprint as I still had a lot left in my legs. It would have been good to try to take some more points. I only saw open space on my left. I had no idea Tyler Farrar was there. By no means would I ever put any of my fellow riders in danger.
Robbie McEwen (Team Katusha) - fifth on stage, 132nd overall @ 1:29:39: With 10km to go I took the wrong way [through a roundabout] and I lost a lot of positions. I spent a lot of energy coming back to the front.
At the finish when I started my sprint the first four riders were too far ahead, so I took a place among the sprinters' group and did my sprint. So I'm glad I took fifth place, but still not happy with how I feel.
Carlos Sastre (Cervélo TestTeam) - 57th on stage, 16th overall @ 7:13: Today was probably the easiest stage we've had so far in this Tour. It was pretty calm, even though things heated up with this difficult, 90-degree turn in the last part of the stage. Before hitting this corner, there was a lot of tension in the peloton as everyone was looking for the best position,
Everyone feared that there could be a lot of crosswind and the road was going to be more open to the wind, and there could have been splits in the bunch. I had no problem staying up front. We've gotten through another stage and every day we're closer to the Pyrenees.
