Tour de France Team Talk Stage 15

July 20 Stage 15 Embrun/Prato Nevoso 183 km (Read Preview)

Cadel Evans loses yellow jersey as Frank Schleck leads with Bernard Kohl third and Evans fourth. The stage was won by Simon Gerrans (Credit Agricole) from a lead group of three - report

Team Columbia (THR)

Mark Cavendish after four stage wins didn't take the start of stage 15 and went home.

Lampre (LAM)

It was another bad day for Lampre and Damiano Cunego on the 15th stage. Cunego, Tiralongo, Bruseghin, Ballan and Szmyd were all involved in a crash at 50k to go.

Cunego said - “It was a negative day, I’m sorry to have missed an important appointment for Italian supporters."

"Things began to go wrong on the first descent, where Pereiro hit my bike: I avoided a fall, but the Spaniard had a bad crash. Then I got involved in the big fall at 50 k at the roundabout and hit my right knee and I had pain in the following kilometres. In the climb I soon understood that I could not follow the other main riders."

" In the next days I will try to find the necessary condition to realise an important performance”.

Alessandro Ballan said of stage 14 won by Oscar Friere - "I saw that many sprinters were not in the bunch and I noticed that I was in a good position at the last kilometres. So I tried to take part in the sprint and I obtained a quite good result".

Team CSC/Saxo (CSC)

The team worked like Trojans to unsettle race leader Cadel Evans and their reward was to see Frank Schelck in yellow - more

Gerolsteiner (GST)

Bernhard Kohl was very aggressive on the final climb and gained time over all others moving him into second spot overall and he now leads the King of the Mountains competition.

Kohl said - "What I managed to achieve here is unbelievable. I am still unable to grasp that I am now ranking second in the Tour."

"I felt good and rode my race. But it was only during the last few kilometers that I truly realized that I had a real shot at the Yellow Jersey. Now I am simply very happy with my second place - and the mountain jersey makes things just perfect. I will naturally do my best to try and defend the jersey. But my primary target is the General Classification. And should I be offered a chance here or there I will do my best to grab it."

Team manager Christian Henn said - "With results such as these spirits are of course high in the team".

"We'll keep taking things one day at a time. Our goal remains a rank within the top ten. We have simply taken another step toward that goal."

"We have also set our sights on the mountain jersey. Especially since Bernhard is delivering such a steady performance." Great prospects for Team Gerolsteiner prior to the second rest day of the Tour de France.

Silence - Lotto (SIL)

Team DS Marc Sergeant felt it important to dispel a rumour that the team hotel had been raided by Police.

After a tough stage for Cadel Evans the squad have scaled down their normal rest day press conferences to allow the rider more time to recover.

Team Milram (MRM)

Erik Zabel missed out once more when Oscar Friere won a mass sprint on stage 14 to win

"Marco Velo and Christian Knees did a great job for me today in the finale. But it wasn't to be, the sprint was 80 m too long. "Yesterday was disappointing, of course, and today, I was too far away from the finish line again."

"Tomorrow, the 'Tour of Pain' starts for 80% of the peloton, the next sprint royale won't be before Paris."

Barloworld (BAR)

The team has announce that Barloworld will not continue to sponsor the team after this Tour. The team will continue in some shape or other as contracts will be honoured until 2010 - more

Credit Agricole (C.A)

Simon Gerrans won when he moved away from Danny Pate and Egoi Martinez to win

“When we started that final climb with such an advantage on the peloton I thought we could hang on. It was only then that I began to think it was possible to stay away but it wasn’t until the last couple of hundred meters that I thought I could win."

“It was only in the last kilometer that I started believing that I could get the better of the other guys. They were climbing better than me that’s why I wasn’t giving them much support at the finish but under the red kite I realised I was in with a real crack at the win."

Abandons

Herve Duclos Lassalle, Cofidis - stage 1 - crash
Angel Gomez, Saunier Duval - stage 3 - crash
Maurico Soler, Barloworld - stage 5 - injuries from an earlier crash
Aurelien Passeron, Saunier Duval - stage 6 - failed to start (Hit a spectator the previous day)
Magnus Backstedt, Garmin Chipotle - stage 7 - outside time limit
Lilian Jegou, FD Jeux - stage 7 - crash
Christophe Moreau, Agritubel - stage 7, bad back
John Gadret, AG2R - stage 7
Mauro Facci, Quickstep, - stage 7
Manuel Beltran, Liquigas - stage 7 - failed dope test and thrown off race
Yury Trofimov Bouyges Telecom - stage 10 - withdrawn before start
Paulo Longo Borghini, Barloworld - stage 11 - crash
Felix Cardenas, Barloworld - stage 11 - crash
Moises Duenas Nevado, Barloworld - stage 11 - failed dope test and thrown off race
Leonardo Piepoli, Saunier Duval - stage 12 - team withdrew
Josep Jufre, Saunier Duval - stage 12 - team withdrew
Jesus Del Nero, Saunier Duval - stage 12 - team withdrew
David De La Fuente, Saunier Duval - stage 12 - team withdrew
Juan Jose Cobo Acebo, Saunier Duval - stage 12 - team withdrew
Rubens Bertogliati, Saunier Duval - stage 12 - team withdrew
Riccardo Ricco, Saunier Duval - stage 12 - failed dope test and thrown off race
Baden Cooke, Barloworld - stage 12 - crash
Nicholas Jalabert, Agritubel - stage 14 - abandoned
Stijn Devolder, Quickstep - stage 15 - abandoned
Mark Renshaw, Credit Agricole - stage 15 - abandoned
Mark Cavendish, Team Columbia - stage 15 - didn't start and went home
Oscar Pereiro, Caisse d'Epargne - stage 15 - crash

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