Michael Rogers said after the finish in Mâcon that his T-Mobile team had to concentrate during the stage to make sure nothing dangerous happened. "It was pretty lumpy at the start," he stated. "It was a fast start too … obviously, downhill. We had to control the breaks and we didn't want CSC to threaten us for the team classification. So that's important, the lead, and to keep it to Paris.
"At the end we just tried to set a little bit of pace so they [Levi Leipheimer, who was in the break] wouldn't threaten my top 10. It would be nice for the team to finish with two in the top-10. It is going well so far."
Rogers had a tough final day in the Alps but is hoping to be good in the race against the clock. He'll be wearing the rainbow jersey as world time trial champion and would be very happy to improve on the fourth place he achieved in the last big TT. He said that he's hoping to recover.
"My body chose yesterday to have a bad day. I struggled the whole day. I had my tail between my legs at the start today, but I was feeling better at the finish. Tomorrow I'll push it the whole way. I haven't seen the TT course yet. I'll probably plan to wake up early tomorrow and go over it early. It is important for us all to go full gas as we still have to think about the team's classification."
Finally, he was asked for his opinion about the sacking of Jan Ullrich by T-Mobile "I just found out after the stage," he replied. "The team had to make a decision, it looks like they made a decision and it is final. Of course, we are sorry. You don't wish that upon any teammate. But that is life and the team has to march on."
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