Stephens: it's a long race

The Astana team of Alexandre Vinokourov finished sixth in yesterday's time trial, conceding 12 seconds to Carlos Sastre's CSC squad. Directeur sportif Neil Stephens spoke to Cyclingnews before CSC and second-placed Caisse d'Epargne finished, but at that point he said he was relatively happy with their ride.

"We are fourth at the moment, four seconds behind," he stated. "I knew we would be about there. We made one little mistake and that cost us some time; one rider lost the wheel at a critical point so I think that made a difference. But things like that can happen.

"It is a three week race so we are looking at things long term. We will see how it goes."