At the 7th stage of the Giro d’Italia Astana team leader Alexandre Vinokourov came in third place behind Cadel Evans, winner of the stage. It is thus placed in first place overall and won for the second time since the start of the Giro 2010, the pink jersey for the team Astana. At the end of stage Kazakh rider responded to questions from the press :

Alexandre Vinokourov: “Today was a particularly tough, especially since we left to bottom right from the beginning. When we arrived on the unpaved road I was a little surprised because it looked a bit like Paris-Roubaix, then the attack on the climb went well, yeah, it has been tough for everyone but I am satisfied, the team worked well and we won again the pink jersey. “

Did you realize immediately that Nibali crashed?

”I heard there was a crash but I did not know who exactly is behind us had Liquigas and after a while when I saw that did not come back Nibali I suspected he was in the crash.”

Did Cadel Evans become your main opponent?

”We can say that the Giro has really started today, Evans has made a great impression and today he showed he is in good shape, I think it is a road more suitable to him, for my side, I thought it was very difficult. But all will be decided mainly in the last week now I’m wearing the pink jersey and we will fight to keep it. “

Can we win the Giro through individual victories ?

”No, the team is very important to achieve a great race like the Giro, you can never succeed alone. You must rely on the team and for example the crash of Paolo Tiralongo yesterday was a big loss for the team because he was supposed to run with me into the mountains on the last week, and therefore the stage of today emphasizes that we can’t win without the mobilization of an entire team. “

At the end of the Giro, there will be many mountains with climbs very difficult, then do you feel confident or do you try to save time on the start of the Giro?

”Today was also was a difficult stage, after, have the legs, is the most important. We will run day after day, without stress. “