Vinokourov looking forward to Alps

By Hedwig Kröner in Mulhouse

The other T-Mobile captain, Alexandre Vinokourov, got through today's stage without any problems. At the finish, the Kazakh explained why he had not made it a spectacular one, saying, "It was a hard stage. I had good legs in that last climb but I wouldn't have attacked as they were still 50 kilometres to go with a headwind, which wouldn't have been easy. I will save my strength for the Alps, for next week."

Vinokourov also had a better impression of the Discovery team than yesterday. "They put a tempo on today, so they were doing much better than yesterday. In the end, I think they were 'à bloc' [flat out] though."

Asked whether the Yellow jersey change from Discovery to CSC made a difference to T-Mobile, Vino replied, "Not really. We will be attacking, be it Voigt or Armstrong. CSC will of course have to control the race now - that's all it changes."