Ann Oakley Quotes

I`m lacking a little competition, but the knee is fine. It doesn`t hurt and it`s good enough to start the Vuelta and begin my preparations for the world`s.

(Alejandro) Valverde is going to drop some bombs. And if it ends up finishing in a bunch sprint I`m not sure Petacchi will get his Italian train going.

The world`s is the only race that matter for me. My goal here at the Vuelta is sharpen my fitness. If I win a stage, great, but the most important thing at the Vuelta is to leave stronger than I came.

It`s OK that the others are ahead of me here. It doesn`t worry me. I really didn`t try in this Vuelta, ... I`m only here to prepare for the world championships. That`s the only thing that matters to me right now.

It`s okay that the others are ahead of me here. It doesn`t worry me. I really didn`t try in this Vuelta. I only came to the Vuelta to recuperate my fitness and I leave here at about 80 percent fitness. If I was here at top fitness I might not have reached the peak at the world`s. At Madrid, I want to be 110 percent fitness and I didn`t want to peak too early.

(Alejandro) Valverde is going to drop some bombs. And if it ends up finishing in a bunch sprint I`m not sure Petacchi will get his Italian train going,

The Belgian riders did everything for me, ... I didn`t have to work hard until the end. At the finish, Mario Aerts gave me perfect position.

I`m not a 100 percent satisfied, but let`s say 98 percent,

The financial side of it is pleasant of course, but that is not the main reason for me leaving my parental home in Balen. I would like to lead a bit of a normal life again. It will be nice to walk down the street without people staring at me. Every day there`s a dozen of interested fans at my front door; it`s getting too much. I`m getting a bit fed up with having to tell the same story twenty times a day to people I don`t know at all, or having to listen to their stories. Monaco will be a better place for me to train also, in winter I often don`t have the courage to go out in the bad weather, in the South training will be easier.

(After yesterday`s crash in the Tour de Rijke, Quick.Step`s Tom Boonen managed to train for around 100 kilometres on Sunday morning.) This morning I woke up a little bit worried about the potential consequences of yesterday`s fall during the G.P. De Rijke, where I hurt my knee, ... Fortunately the knee was not swollen. When I started to ride my bike, I understood that the problem was not serious as I feared. I trained for around 100 kilometres without problems, forcing and doing some tests on the knee. Tomorrow I will do a long training ride and then Wednesday, as scheduled, I will fly to Granada. In the Tour de France I was unlucky, yesterday not.