How do you feel you rode in today’s circuit race?

Today’s circuit race was just trying to finish and not get into any major trouble. I felt fine. I’m definitely looking forward to taking some days off before Paris-Nice and getting over the jet lag, so I was happy with the way thing went today.

What’s your overall impression of the Tour of California now that it’s over?

I was absolutely blown away with the organization, the crowds, the number of people supporting my team and myself also. I thought it was a great way for people to see the sport at the highest level. And a great way for the sponsors to really get the payback they get for sponsoring the team. They really saw how many people recognize and cheer for our team. So, for me it was 100% a success.

Today’s crash created a significant gap between the leaders and the peloton. Did that gap worry you and what’s the team’s strategy when that type of thing happens?

The gap was about 10 seconds when the crash happened but of course the four guys in front didn’t know that it happened and it’s a normal thing in cycling that when there’s a crash of that magnitude that everyone waits for the last person to get off and try to at least continue in the race, especially it being on the last day. There’s that unspoken rule of sportsmanship that goes overlooked sometimes in our sport and that allowed the four riders to take a large advance but no, I wasn’t worried at all. I knew that we would be able to bring them back. We took a little responsibility there and took charge of the peloton and made sure that we brought them back so that everything would stay the same.

What did you like best about the tour and would you do it again?

I would absolutely do the Amgen Tour of California again. What I liked best, oh that’s hard. The food was great, the hotels were great, I really liked the prologue because in my opinion that’s [San Francisco] the most beautiful city in the country, and going down the coast line, especially down there in Big Sur. I really enjoyed myself here and it’s going to be really difficult to click over and go back to Europe and stay in small hotels and eat terrible, overcooked pasta and ride in a lot colder weather.