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.

View Windows Media Video of interviews with Bobby Julich, David Zabriskie and Jens Voigt after today’s race.

Tour a photo gallery of today’s action. 

*The penultimate stage, a relatively short ride from Santa Barbara to Thousand Oaks, was won by Olaf Pollack of T-Mobile in a finish that was heavily contested by sprint teams.

*CSC’s main priority was to protect the general classifications of David Zabriskie and Bobby Julich, so sprinter Stuart O’Grady had only a few riders to get him into the finish.

*CSC’s Karsten Kroon jumped onto an early breakaway that was reeled in after less than an hour.

*Barring catastrophe, Floyd Landis of Phonak, Zabriskie and Julich are virtually guaranteed their spots on the podium.

*Read the full story on today’s Stage 6 at www.csc.com/cycling.

*There will be TV coverage tonight on ESPN2 at 10:00 p.m. Pacific time (1 hour).

*The race will culminate with a circuit race in Redondo Beach. The riders compete on 10 laps of a 7.65 mile circuit along the Redondo Beach Esplanade and through an intermediate sprint line in Riviera Village before returning to the start/finish line on Harbor Street.

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.

View Windows Media Video of interviews with Christian Vande Velde and Bobby Julich after today’s race.

Tour a photo gallery of today’s action.