Tour De Suisse Live

Cunego saving energy for latter part of Tour de France

Italian will be cautious in undulating opening week

At various points in the seven years since his youthful Giro d'Italia victory, Damiano Cunego has hinted at permanently renouncing all general classification ambitions in the grand tours. But old habits die hard for the Lampre-ISD rider, and he lines up in this year's Tour de France with an open mind about his chances of securing a high overall finish.

Cunego's burden of expectation has eased considerably since that halcyon summer of 2004, while the disappointment of his recent Tour de Suisse defeat was offset by the effervescence of his performance, and he cut a distinctly relaxed figure in Le Puy du Fou on the eve of the Tour. . "After being here for a week or ten days, you'll start to understand what you're capable of in terms of the general classification or if you're better off going for stages. I'll just have to see how I am and how the others are, and then gauge what level I'm at compared to them."

The Tour's undulating opening week appears to be well-suited to a rider with Cunego's punchy characteristics, but in his 30th year, the 'Little Prince' is perhaps more cautious in his approach to stage racing than he was in his youth. While his 2004 Giro win was characterised by some impetuous attacking in the opening week, Cunego is keen to keep something in reserve for the latter part of this Tour.

"I've seen that there are some nervous stages that are suited to attackers but I think that in a race like the Tour de France, you also need to manage your energy because it lasts for three weeks," Cunego pointed out. "It'll be important to take care not to use up all the energy you have in the first week, and I'm more interested in being stronger as the days go by."

The strength in depth of the Tour peloton and the caliber of the riders who are aiming solely at the race's opening nine days means that Cunego does not have any stage in the opening week earmarked for himself.

"You need to be consistent day after day and not try to do it all too quickly because there will be a lot of well-prepared riders here aiming specifically to take the yellow jersey early on," he pointed out.

Cunego lost the yellow jersey to Levi Leipheimer (RadioShack) on the final day of the Tour de Suisse by just four seconds, but in spite of the cruel nature of that narrow defeat, the Italian agreed that it had been his best showing in the high mountains for quite some time.

2011 Tour de Suisse LIVE - Stage 8 | www.cyclingfans.com

Here .  ( auto-translated to English )

- Tickers go live before video.  Tickers are listed in the Live tickers section at right.

- Laura Shelton , the American podium girl/TDF hostess, tells me she'll be back, again with Skoda , for a third consecutive year at the Tour de France which, believe it or not, starts in just 2 weeks!  (Laura also recently worked the French Open/Roland Garros tennis tournament, working directly for the president's office of the FFT (French Tennis Federation)).  Welcome back, Laura!  -Pete

in the history of the Tour de France.

- Saturday's Stage 8 map and info here .

- Saturday's Tour de Suisse Stage 8 departs Tübach at 1:31pm CET (7:31am U.S. Eastern) and is expected at the finish at Schaffhausen at around 5:30pm CET (11:30am U.S. Eastern).  Tour de Suisse live streaming video should get underway at around 4:00pm CET (10:00am U.S. Eastern).

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