TTT in Montpellier (plus video with the Schlecks):

What.A.Stage.I had never thought that TTTs could be so thrilling before!
Here's what happened:first of all it must be said that the parcours was pretty dangerous,there were lots of narrow streets,curves,a bad asphalt and so a lots of riders fell.Between the guys who crashed there was also Denis Menchov,who fell in the first km of the stage and whose team didn't go very well.I guess the Russian has definitely stop smiling in those days...
For a long time the best team was Katusha.Then Liquigas came and made a very good time.

The favourite teams were Columbia,Garmin,Astana and Saxo Bank.Columbia didn't go very well probably because of the fact that the team worked a lot yesterday.Garmin lost 4 men in the first part of the stage but managed to arrive in front of Liquigas.Then Saxo Bank and Astana started their race."Our" team never gave the impression of being faster than the other teams,but finally came in 3rd behind Garmin and Astana.The team from Kazakhistan (even if in the Tour team there's just one rider that comes from that country) went even faster than Garmin and won the stage.The problem now was: who gets the yellow jersey? In fact before of the stage Cancellara had 40 seconds of advantadge on Armstrong,but during the TTT Astana's men gained exactly 40 seconds on Saxo Bank team.After some minutes of anxiety and worriness,the news came: "Cancellara keeps the yellow jersey".I was sooo relieved!

Talking about the GC riders,los Schlecks lost 40 seconds from the Astana's quartetto (Armstrong,Contador,Kloden and Leipheimer),but other riders lost much more time than them. For example,Menchov lost 2'20'' from the Astanas,while Sastre lost 1'37".Evans came with 2'35" of delay.Armstrong was probably referring to those riders when he said "Someone has lost the Tour today".

Regarding Saxo Bank,Kim Andersen (team's ds) said that today's stage "was very hectic and incredibly exciting.We did an acceptable team time trial but it was not a perfect race although we rode with everything we had.Today we lost little more time to the Astana-riders but right now we are happy that we still have the yellow jersey".Chris-Anker Sorensen (who in an interview said "I'm here to hep the Schleck brothers in the mountains,in the TTT I'll just try to survive as much as possible"),said:"It was repugnant out there and extremely hard to find a rhythm on the course which was technically very difficult.We were close to a crash on occasion but we made it and we are riding with everything we had.We know that Astana haeargs a sRtrong team so they must be attacked in the mountains.However,today we take time on both Carlos Sastre and Denis Menchov,so there is absolutely nothing to cry about".

Cancellara was obviously very happy:"I was a bit nervous,I think Bjarne Riis and Kim Andersen were also nervous,we didn't know if we'd still be in yellow with this small amount of time.My team and I can be proud of doing what we did today. Everybody did the maximum of what was possible. With Swiss time precision... time was born in Switzerland,so that was on my side!"

"We had different tasks for different riders,"he continued."It was hard because of the wind and because of the nature of the course-it wasn't a good course for a team time trial. It obliged us to remain calm and not go flat out right away.We knew the last kilometres were more suited to a high rhythm.It was only 40 kilometres,not very long,but it was important to stay calm and concentrate,especially in the first part.Our preview of the course also helped a lot and I think we deserve to retain this yellow jersey today.We can be very proud of what we have done.It was the whole team's performance that made up the result.I had to watch out not to go too fast when I accelerated, not to challenge my teammates too much.That was a major concern over the whole parcours.I had to think about the others more than about myself,and that's also the reason why we retained the jersey.We don't know what will happen tomorrow,there will be a lot of wind again.For sure,we will try to defend the jersey another day.But with Columbia being so strong,the other sprinter's teams ask themselves why they should work to catch a break if Cavendish wins anyway".

Talking about Fab Fab,if someone is interested on this link (http://www.gazzetta.it/Ciclismo/04-07-2009/cancellara-amate-crono-50680996054.shtml) there's an interview with him made after the Monaco's stage.It's in Italian and,if you want,I can translate it and publish it on my blog.

Tomorrow's stage should be an easy one,but don't forget that also yesterday's stage was supposed to be a quiet one and instead all the GC riders lost 40" from sir Lancelot.

NB: I've found this video http://it.eurosport.yahoo.com/video/01072009/45/ciclismo-tour-de-france-i-fratelli-schleck.html with the Schleck brothers.It's in Italian and it regards the last interview about them that I've posted.Hope you'll enjoy it!

(Photo by Reuters)