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Floyd Landis of Team Ouch Presented by Maxxis, stopped by the post race press conference to answer a few questions. Everything from how his Tour of California is going to what riders should expect tomorrow on Mount Palomar.
Stage 7 top-five finishers:
1 - Rinaldo Nocentini (ITA), AG2R La Mondiale
2 - Hayden Roulston (NZL), Cervelo Test Team
3 - Pieter Weening (NED), Rabobank
4 - Markus Zberg (SUI), BMC Racing Team
5 - Martin Elmiger (SUI), AG2R La Mondiale
General Classification top-five standings as of Stage 7:
1 - Levi Leipheimer (USA), Astana
2 - David Zabriskie (USA), Garmin-Slipstream
3 - Michael Rogers (AUS), Team Columbia-High Road
4 - Jens Voigt (GER), Team Saxo Bank
5) Thomas Lövkvist (SWE), Team Columbia-High Road
Stage 7 jersey winners include:
Amgen Race Leader Jersey- Levi Leipheimer (USA), Astana
Amgen’s Breakaway from Cancer Most Courageous Rider Jersey- Christian VendeVelde (USA), Garmin-Slipstream
Herbalife Sprint Jersey- Mark Cavendish (GBR), Team Columbia-High Road
Rabobank Best Young Rider Jersey- Robert Gesink (NED), Rabobank
California Travel & Tourism Commission King of the Mountain (KOM) Jersey- Jason McCartney (USA), Team Saxo Bank
Bissell’s Tom Zirbel improved his time trial result by a whopping 58 seconds over last year’s showing in the Solvang Time Trial at the Tour of California. Zirbelicious finished in seventh spot at 39 seconds off the fastest time of Levi Leipheimer (Astana) and was the highest placed domestic rider.
Great showing by the Bissell team yesterday as they placed 3 riders of only 5 domestic riders in the top 20 of the Tour of California Time Trial which was dominated by ProTour riders. His team mates Ben Jacques-Maynes finished in eleventh and New Zealand Champ Jeremy Vennell was seventeenth.
Zirbel honed his time trial position during the past year where he changed the cleat position, crank length and the aero bars setup.
“It seems to have increased my timetrialing which is what timetrialing is all about. We’ll see, maybe it made a difference, maybe it didn’t but this game is so mental anyway so it doesn’t matter either way as long as I believe it.” said a laughing Zirbel prior to the race.
Zirbel raced in the Tour de San Luis in Argentina in January where he finished second on the time trial before being felled by food poisoning. It was perfect preparation for the big race in California.
“It was just about right for us to get back into it, it was a perfect segway to Tour of California to be honest, to get that first race out of the way, get the confidence back, okay I can still timetrial. We need to be constantly reminded.”
Levi Leipheimer after winning Stage 6 of the 2009 Tour of California, the time trial in Solvang. It’s almost certain that Levi will be wearing yellow into Escondido this weekend.
Adrian Montgomery of Scott Bicycles shows us Michael Roger’s Scott Addict SL team bike. Team Columbia-Highroad will have their bikes mostly outfitted with the normal Dura Ace 7900, with the exception of a few riders who will be using the new electronic version instead.
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| Photo by Ken Conley |
Mark Cavendish (Columbia-High Road) is quite certain of his destiny…and that is to win races. “I can simply say that a win for me is a win; I’m greedy in that way,” stated Cavendish after winning a tight sprint finish against Tom Boonen (Quick Step) in Clovis. “I want to be the best and I always want to cross that finish first. I want to be the first no matter who is here or what race I’m in. I want to be first and it doesn’t matter who is there.”
Cavendish believes he was born with confidence. “Ever since I was young I knew what I wanted to do and what I wanted to achieve. It’s the same in every aspect of my life. I know I am dedicated to my sport and know what I need to put in…in both my personal life and in my professional life. When you have a strong commitment from your team, your support staff, your equipment sponsors…..and you know you put in the work….there can only be one outcome and that is success.”
Doug Berner of Team Type 1 shows off a typical team bike. The team is sponsored by Orbea and will be riding the Opal again this year. The Orbea will come fully kitted with Dura Ace 7900, PRO stem, handlebar, and seatpost, as well as a Selle Italia Saddle. The coolest part on the bike… the custom TT1 Cateye computer!
Levi Leipheimer (USA), General Classification Leader and Stage 6 Winner
Astana
On the race overall:
“This is the fourth year for the Amgen Tour of California and every year this stage is important. The overall race this year has been tougher. We’ve had one more day before the time trial and we’ve had some bad weather; the race is split up this year. Of course we have two hard days to come, but today has made the biggest difference.”
“There are two tough stages left; anything can happen. After today, I think the competition has less and less to lose, so it’s easier for them to throw caution to the wind and go for it. The competition is hard. You won’t find better competition before July. We just have to take it kilometer by kilometer; take it day by day and see what happens.”
On today’s win:
“I said this immediately when I finished, this time trial means the most because it was such a close race. I really respect Dave (Zabriskie); he’s one of the best time trialists in the world, and Michael Rogers is the three-time World Champion in the time trial, so to beat these guys is a big honor. It means the most since it was such a tight race; it was a great race.”
On the advantage of knowing the time trial course:
“I think we all know the course; we all know the facts. We know the lefts and rights, the uphills and downhills. Not in the sense of the word of ‘knowing,’ it’s more of a sensation, expectation and confidence. Having the history of winning this stage twice before and having that pressure to continue that streak is also a big advantage.”
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