July 16, 2005 – As Discovery teammate Lance Armstrong wears the Yellow jersey at the Tour de France, Canada’s Michael Barry, fresh from a win at the Tour of Austria, answered more questions about the inner workings of the Tour.

A lot of guys use compression socks in between stages, or while travelling and so on. Are you and what’s the benefit?

Barry: I do use compression socks. For those who don’t know what they are they are basically tight nylon tights that have an open toe and go up to the bottom of the glutes. They are good for travelling as they help increase the bloodflow in the legs and decrease water retention and bloating which happens on long journeys. We also put them on after a race as they seem to help with recovery as well.

Quick.Step’s Boonen and your teammate George Hincapie have been seen wearing super tight Nike jerseys. What’s the deal with those? They look as tight as skinsuits – is it a new fabric?

Barry: Nike designed a new set of clothing for us this year which is similar to Nike’s Swift skinsuits – they have been worked on in a wind tunnel. All the seams are hidden, the fabric is golfball-like in sections and they are tighter fitting. Every piece of flapping material slows a rider down and uses energy. It is very significant over a 200 km stage and especially over a three-week stage race. George has been wearing the shorts and jersey combo on a lot of the flat stages and that’s why his clothing looks a little different from the other guys on the team. It may take the Euro guys a little while to warm up to using the clothing but once they realize the advantages the will be in it all the time.

What did you think of Saunier Duval’s Chris Horner yesterday waiting to pull as the pack caught him? An example of not being afraid to lose, to win? What would you have done?

Barry: I think he knew Cofidis’ Sylvain Chavanel had to lead it out for him (Chavanel had much better legs at that point as he hadn’t been in the break all day) to win the stage so he waited, but I think he didn’t realize he was going to get caught until it was too late. He should have started sprinting out of the corner and anticipated the peloton. Maybe he didn’t realize how fast the group was coming in as well. The sprint was clocked at 75 kmh and Chavanel was maybe going 45. If Chris had started from the last corner, taken a chance, and given it all from there he might have won. But hindsight is 20/20 and it is easy to call a race from the couch so…

For more about Barry, including his new book, “Inside the Postal Bus”, visit www.michaelbarry.ca