2006 Tour of Britain (UCI 2.1)
Stage 6, London
Sunday, September 3 | www.tourofbritain.com
He may be the King of the Mountains, but Andy Schleck drives hard at the front of the peloton for his yellow jersey teammate, Martin Pederson.
Martin Pederson: "I came here to win a stage, and I have won the whole Tour. This stage is probably the best day on the bike ever. It was very nice to see all the spectators on my first day in London and to going over Tower Bridge was pretty special. This is my first year at CSC, and the first stage was my first win. I have been to many places but never here."
On the way the stage was organised and traffic etc, he says "everything was good, except for the traffic which is hard to control sometimes."
Asked about the protest stage, he said "Our team was riding on the front and we never took it easy. I have a very strong team and any one of them could have won the Tour of Britain. They were so strong that a lot of teams were afraid to attack because we could ride at the front all day."
Asked if it was good to have Bjarne Riis in the car behind to see him win, he said "For sure, it is nice for the team to do good here in Britain. It is the best way to show yourself and good for Bjarne to see the team ride so good. I now hope to go to the worlds but am not sure if I will be selected. It is a big goal for me though".
DFL rider Russell Downing is presented with the best British rider jersey for finishing 9th in the race.
Russell Downing: A rider who deserves a place on a professional squad after a great Tour, the DFL rider had this to say in the press conference: "I've got pretty mixed feelings really, especially after losing the Green jersey like I did yesterday. It was a pretty strange and bizarre race but I have no hard feelings with 'Cav'."
"It was a good Tour for me. If you had said to me before the start that I'd be on the podium for four stages, and everyday a top 10, I would have said great, I'll take that. It is always a sad day though when you lose a jersey."
"I wasn't quite sure where Mark was in the finale. I was fourth or fifth wheel and had a bit of a tussle getting Tom's wheel with a lap to go and got forced off that and then when I stepped out in the sprint, Mark came past me with 100 metres to and that was it, the race was done and there was nothing I could do."
"Now I'm just doing 1.1's in Belgium and we'll see what happens.". 
Tom Boonen shakes the hand of British rider Ross Sander who was abused by the World Champion for attacking on the fifth stage. British Cycling spoke to the Belgian about why he did what he did.
Tom Boonen. At the start Tom was talking to the press about the previous stage and I asked him was it right to treat the young riders from GB the way he did when they were told to race?
"It's not the way to get respect. Let's not talk about the problem. There are few big riders in the peloton and the decision was that CSC would pull and that we would stay in a group. If you want to call it a protest, it was protest."
"When a 19 year old guy (Ross Sander) attacks (40 or 50k from the start), I know he has balls, and I respect him for that. But it wasn't the right thing to do and it doesn't go with respect. But I am not mad at him, not at all. I go to him and tell him it was a very brave thing to do but in some cases it is not good to listen to things in your ear because it is only a machine. You have to make your own decisions some times."
"Not listening to your manager doesn't affect your career. One day does not affect your career."
