Stage 4 Reactions | Cyclingnews

Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis): "It wasn't necessarily the plan for me to be in the break, it just happened. We wanted to keep the jersey."

Rémy Di Gregorio (Française Des Jeux): "I didn't want to quit the Tour," said as he was heading to the medics."

Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole): "I was better placed as in the previous sprints. I am too happy. The team is going well, we already got second. I hope it continues like this. I hope my luck has changed."

William Bonnet (Crédit Agricole): "We worked a lot the last few days but it didn't work out so far. But today it came together. We have great rouleurs with Julian Dean and Sébastien Hinault. It's a great satisfaction."

Fabian Cancellara (CSC): "The team was great today. There was a lot of wind. On the one hand it was nervous but on other hand it was easier for us than yesterday. I was more tired yesterday. That was the hardest kilometre of my life. I hope to keep the yellow here in France for a while longer. But when we hit the mountains it is certainly over for me. Tomorrow will be a hard. We will just look day by day."

Stéphane Augé (Cofidis): "I need to thank Sylvain [Chavanel] today. He made the decision to leave the jersey for me [by not sprinting for first place in the last KOM]. He is a great champion. I had nine points and he had six. If he'd taken the KOM, he would have passed me, so he let Knees go ahead, and now has eight points."

"Yesterday I did a bluff [when he attacked more than 30 kilometres before the KOM]. I surprised everyone, including my directeur sportif."

He explained the electric shifting system, describing that there is a battery in the bottleholder with a wire connecting to te shifters. He said, "the system works very well and I am very happy with it." He does mention some people predict trouble with it, but he is confident that it'll work fine.

Laurent Jalabert (Commentating for French TV): "The polka-dot jersey is very recognized and it is great to wear. Stéphane [Augé] already tried in the first stage and he certaianly deserves this jersey."

Alexander Vinokourov (Astana): "It was a special day because it was very windy. We always had to stay focused on the road. We got a little bit more stress than in the peloton. But the whole team did a good job today. My ankle still disturbs me. I regularly show it to the team's osteopathe. But I stay optimistic."

Gregory Rast (Astana): "Finally a real bike race! The peloton went faster, it was much more nervous. With the team, we were always in the front of the peloton to work for Vinokourov and Klöden."