That's a great ride by Hunter! Cancellara was a close second, then Fischer, Pozzato and Ballan. It is a great
day for South Africa and the whole African continent, since Robert Hunter is the first rider to have ever won a Tour de France
stage, something both Hunter and Barloworld must be really proud of.
Montpellier seems to be a good place for Team Barloworld: in 1989, being him a rider at that time, Directeur
Sportif Valerio Tebaldi managed to win after a long breakaway. "For me - Tebaldi said - it was like watching a movie again,
the same setting, the same feeling as 18 years ago. On Tuesday, when Soler won, I was about to cry, today I have a stomach-ache
for too much happyness".
Today, Robert Hunter achieved the second win for Team Barloworld in 94th Tour de France, two day's later the
impressive Mauricio Soler's performance in Briancon. Tom Boonen remained out of the first positions even though he was not
in the fall: he nearly hit the barriers but got the foot down in time. The Belgian missed the opportunity to build a big lead
in the points ranking: Hunter moves to within 11 points of him in the green jersey classification.
It was an interesting day despite a completely flat course: really hot pace from the very beginning and several
breakaway attempts (one of the first drappels to attack included Barloworld Kanstantin Siutsou) happened. But today the wind
was the main protagonist of the stage: Team Astana took the chance to elevate the tempo and caused difficulties to many riders,
such as Christophe Moreau and experienced sprinter Erik Zabel, who finished 3.20 behind the main bunch.
A great work by
Team Barloworld, Caisse d'Epargne and Liquigas led the peloton on the finish line in huge advance on the timetable, and a
regal sprint by Robert Hunter gave him his first ever Tour de France success and an important place in the history of this
race.
"Ten years ago I moved to Europe from South Africa, it was a big jump at the time - a joyful Rob Hunter stated
after the race - but today many things have changed and cycling, and sport in general, moved many steps ahead in my country.
I'm really proud to represent a team supported by an important South-African company: now we deserved more respect, we are
a greatly professional team, and I'm sure we'll become one of the best teams all over the world in the next few years".
Christophe Moreau lost time to his main opponents for the yellow jersey. Alexander Vinokourov said: "Today I felt much better than yesterday where I was near to leave the race. But well, I still
don’t have the legs I had when I won on the Champs Elysées after my break in the last kilometers. I asked my teammates
to ride because I felt good. We knew that some riders were in our back, but we didn’t know who it was, and thate there
was Moreau for example. For us, the most important was to win as much time as we could on the ohter riders, to ride with the
whole team. It’s clear that today I’m in a very good mood again."
Race leader Michael Rasmussen said: "It was very fast and warm from the beginning. The Cote d’Azur turned
into a battlefield. There was a lot of attacks going all day long and eventually it came down to a bunch sprint but I think
we averaged almost 49km/h so it was much more than just a transitional stage.
"I wasn’t really surprised by the
actions of Astana. I saw the whole team gather together in front of the group right after the feed zone so I was relatively
prepared and luckily Denis [Menchov] was also right there; he rode a really good stage today.
"Moreau lost a lot of time
today and I’ve got to see it as though it’s one guy less to concentrate on in the mountains so it’s good
for me. Everyone who loses time works in my favor.
"I wouldn’t say I’m looking forward to the time trial,
rather the prospect of being done with it is something I’m thinking about. I’m looking forward to the Pyrenees,
that’s for sure. Today was a bit stressful; there was a lot of wind and it was obviously a very fast stage. There were
a lot of people on the road and not all them are too experienced at being cycling spectators, so it’s a little more
dangerous riding down here in the holiday season."
Rabobank Sports Director Erik Dekker said: "What Astana did today was seize and opportunity and everybody
knew something could happen. It was a pretty small road and a strong crosswind at the feed zone so what that team did was
not exactly remarkable but their riders did something that nobody normally dares to do. If one team would do something so
bold, then I would have expected it to be Astana.
"They tried something today and they didn’t really cause a lot
of damage; the only real victim is [Christophe] Moreau, but it was good for [Rabobank] also.
"Moreau is an aggressive
rider and he’s in great shape so it’s not bad for us that he lost three minutes 20 seconds today.
"Of course
he crashed [but] it was way before the attack happened so I don’t know if he was really hurt and couldn’t put
100 percent effort into the chase but the Tour waits for nobody.
"The attack was not against Moreau, it was against the
whole field but Moreau is the major victim."
