Quote: “He's toast. He needed a three minute advantage, not a three minute deficit! I think ultimately he's too calm and I think the winning tactics elude him." On Cadel Evans.

The Points Jersey: “ I think it will be the best competition this year. Those dudes (Cavendish and Hushovd) will fight tooth and nail all the way to Paris. I think Cav needs a few more Grand Tours to figure it all out and how to use his energy more judiciously both on and off the bike. Right now Thor is the better overall rider.”

The TV crew: “Each day starts at 8:30 in the morning at the finish and usually wraps up by 11:00 pm at the earliest before we drive to the next town to bed down. We're like the road crew for Motorhead – feel the rock -n-roll lifestyle baby!”

Stage Eight: “I liked that stage a lot, mostly because I had picked Sanchez to win! I figured he hadn't done anything yet and I'm sure the team manager threatened him with his job if he didn't take the last opportunity to get a win in Spain. Until then, the Spanish riders had been blanked in Spain so they needed to do something and he was the only guy on the roster with the talent and class to pull it off.”

Contador's press conference: “There's a lot of speculation about what he'll say. Hopefully someone asks him some hard questions. He could use the opportunity to assert himself as the #1 rider on the team which could create some division. Then again, he might also be announcing that he's moving to another team next year which would make even him lose even more support in Astana. Contador is more impetuous than intelligent so it's anybody's guess.”

Stage Nine: That was a very impressive ride put in by Pellozotti and Fedrigo. It was a pure drag race with no game playing or silly tactics. They both had no choice but to go flat out so that's what they did. The funny thing about the stage overall was that Oscar Freire was well placed to win it, but since he was the only sprinter to make it over the Tourmalet with the main group, the peloton shut itself down because they knew he could win. Rabo was in a flight for life coming down that descent to get Freire positioned. Even Laurens Ten Dam – who literally shredded himself when he crashed his brains out on the descent rode to the front to ride tempo – that was huevo rancheros with triple X hot sauce! Oscar did a great job today. He stayed up with Lance and Contador, but his very effort is what eventually lost him the race – that's a funny thing about bike racing.

Quote: “Prerogative is a funny thing....why piss off a Monster? If you give a monster a shoe lace, he won't eat your leg off...otherwise it can devour you!” On the mistake many people still make thinking that by making Lance mad you can more easily defeat him.