July 14, 2005 – Michael Barry, fresh from a stage win, the Points jersey and sixth place overall at the Tour of Austria, has been following his teammates at the Tour de France. Pedal caught up with him for the ultimate insider’s perspective.

Tough luck for Dave Zabriskie. What’s it like to see such a good friend go through such highs and lows? Especially such a nice guy?

Barry: It was awesome to see him in yellow and heartbreaking to see him crash. He has been through a lot in the last couple of years as he has had to come back from several injuries so it was incredible to see him beat the best in a tough time trial and take the yellow jersey. And then when he crashed and was forced to stop the race I had a pit in my stomach for him – but now he gets to spend a few weeks with his girlfriend, heal up and get back on his bike again. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him as world TT champion this fall.

It’s still quite an accomplishment what he’s done – TTs in all three Grand Tours – but he probably doesn’t even realize how great that is, does he?

Barry: I think he realized it when he went to check his emails and saw several thousand in the in box.

What happened, in your view, the day Lance was isolated two stages ago? Was it as catastrophic as the media made it appear?

Barry: I think George [Hincapie] had ridden too hard in the break earlier in the day and ran out of gas for the final. As for the rest of the climbers, especially the Spaniards and Jose Azevedo, they are more comfortable on the longer steeper climbs and the next day they were in front when they needed to be. Often, the first hard acceleration on a climb
in a Grand Tour hurts the worst and then you feel better once the body gets accustomed to the efforts. It was interesting that T-Mobile was so dominant on the stage where Discovery faltered and then when the real mountains arrived the roles were reversed.

Lance looks pretty good, who else is impressing you on Discovery and in the race itself? Michael Rasmussen? Alejandro Valverde?

Barry: George is riding really well – when he finishes his work there are 15 guys left in the wheel. And, he was constantly on the front with Lance and Popo [Yaroslav Popovych] on the flat stages during the first week. So, he has been consistently strong since the start. Popo has been doing a tremendous job as well but honestly, the entire team in incredible. They are essentially riding the entire peloton off their wheels as soon as the
road goes up. Rasmussen did something amazing in the mountains the other day – he averaged about 40km/h by himself for the entire stage. It was impressive. He will go home with the polka dots on his back but I think he will have a hard time challenging Lance as he can’t time trial at all and doesn’t look good enough to put any time into Lance in the mountains. But, that said, I don’t think the team will let him go up the road and get
anymore time again as he is now a threat. I honestly, can’t really see any challengers at this point but there are still a few good days in the mountains and a lot of kms until Paris so you never know…