How did you feel on the course today?

I felt pretty good. I think it was definitely the most deceptive stage of the race so far. It was very difficult and with Discovery missing that breakaway right at the beginning it made it a pretty difficult day.

What was the team strategy today?

We just wanted to take control because we didn’t know how safe or how hard the circuits were going to be and we obviously wanted to keep myself and David Zabriskie out of harm’s way as well as help Stuart [O’Grady] for the sprint. But on a course like that it was like an Indy car circuit. You could just sit at the back and do nothing and it was kind of pointless to ride on the front, but that’s what we do for training and for next time so it wasn’t a total waste of energy.

Tomorrow is the last day, how do you think it will pan out?

I think the results will pretty much stay the same; it will probably come down to a sprint finish.

What is the importance of a circuit race at the end of the Tour?

The circuit at the end just gives the riders a chance to have a little bit of camaraderie. It’s not such a hard stage and it’s more of a spectacle for the crowd--they get to see us a bunch of times and they get to see the podium and the jersey presentations. And they get to maybe understand a bit more of the race as opposed to a road race when we just fly by.