Alejandro Valverde, finished 12th on the 4th stage of the Dauphin? Lib?r?, an individual time trial of 42,4 kilometers raced between Bourg-l?s-Valence and Valence.
"I am really happy with my result because on such a course which was really the perfect one for the specialists, I did not lose much time compared with the riders who had a better time than me. Today I showed that I am able to do well also in longer time trial and that is important for the future. Tomorrow we will be in the mountain. That is more something for me and I hope to be able to achieve something nice there."
Valverde: I will give it all to win the race
The fourth stage of the Criterium del Dauphin? Lib?r?, an individual time trial of 42,4 kilometers, won by World Champion Bert Grabsch. Alejandro finished 1:38 behind the winner, 1:31 behind Cadel Evans and 0:54 behind Alberto Contador. On the eve of the first mountain stage he is now 8th overall 1:54 behind the Australian Cadel Evans.
"Considering the kind of time trial it was, which was completely different from the one I won last year, I thing I get a good result today. This 42 kilometers course was absolutely made for real specialists, with straight lines of three or four kilometers and a lot of wind. There was a short climb right in the middle of the course but it had no real influence. This morning when we went and see the course I was not really optimistic and I thought this would be most of all a test which would give me the possibility to check my shape. But after I finished the race I saw that I finished only 1:38 behind such a specialist as Grabsch is, less than one minute behind Contador and 1:30: behind Evans, and I was really satisfied.
"I sincerely thought that I would lose more time and also that Alberto who used to do very good time trials and started 2 minutes behind me, would overtake me. That’s the reason why I was looking behind all the time but my director shouted to me that I had to look in front of me and that my intermediate times were very good ones. From then on I was more confident. The result I get today just as the one I get in the first time trial gives me extra motivation before the following stages.
"Tomorrow is the first mountain stage, with a very special climb, the Mont Ventoux. It is sure that after a time trial like the one of today, we lost plenty of energy and tomorrow some riders could pay the consequences. I had a very bad experience in that climb two years ago and I lost more than 42 minutes so that for sure it is impossible to do worse this time!
"It will not be easy of course but I will give it all to try and win the race. In fact the time trail did not change anything in the classification and the three big favorites, Evans, Contador and myself, are still the same. The next stages should be in my favor and I hope I will be able to hope the same I did last year."
Website: Team Caisse d’Epargne
