Pereiro happy with second

“Today for me was a very, very difficult day, because it was the longest time-trial of my life. At the start of the race, I hoped to limit my losses, and in the last kilometre I was very, very tired. Xavier [Zandio] told me nothing is impossible, I was in second position and in the final ten kilometres I went to the absolute limit. My objective was the podium. It's great for the team.”

Few and far between were those who tipped Oscar Pereiro for a place on the podium in Paris. The 28 year-old was originally cast in the role of support rider to Alejandro Valverde, though his crash in the third stage left Pereiro and Vladimir Karpets vying for the role of team leader.

Despite losing half an hour in the Pyrenees, a well-worked breakaway allowed Pereiro to seize the yellow jersey. After faring far better in the Alps, Pereiro spoke of ‘the most important day of my life' ahead of Saturday's crucial time trial, though in the end he was upstaged by the irrepressible Landis.

“For me, the more Floyd rode on the Tour de France, the more I think it's a great victory for him. I am happy for Floyd, I am happy for me, I am happy for Klöden in third position.”

Pereiro's compatriot Carlos Sastre dropped from second to fourth on Saturday, after finishing 4'42” off the pace. The Team CSC rider admitted his disappointment at dropping out of the podium places, but insisted he was happy with his efforts overall

“For sure it's not such a good day now, but when you do the maximum that you can inside, you have to be happy. You know I did the best that I could do in this Tour de France. I attacked when I could, today I think that I went as fast as I could... I did a special Tour for myself and you cannot do more. Like I said, congratulations to the rest of the guys who beat me. That is life.”

Davitamon team leader Cadel Evans blamed poor performance in the time-trials for his failure to challenge for the yellow jersey. The 29 year-old Australian was caught and passed by Andreas Kloeden on Saturday, and said the 57 kilometre course was not as he had expected.

“I actually prefer when it breaks your rhythm. From what it looked like on paper before I saw it, I thought it would be a hillier course actually, but actually it was quite flat, and it was really a rulers course for the specialist time trialists, which well, I've improved this year, but not enough, and it seems to have cost me a bit in my timing."

"I didn't make up the difference in either of the time trials, and that's why I'm out of the race, and that's why I think I'm not up with the top-five riders”

Evans is set to take fifth place in this year's Tour, and lies just over five minutes behind leader Landis.