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BONN, Jun 24 (CP) - Mario Kummer, Directeur Sportif of the German team T-Mobile, answered Cyclingpost.com reporter Kathrin Bomans' questions at the team's Tour de France presentation in Bonn on June 22nd. How about the initial time trial, does the route rather suit Jan Ullrich or Lance Armstrong? There is no difference. It is a route where Armstrong can ride well, too. Jan is a good time trialist, as we have seen in the Tour de Suisse. He has a great position on the bike. He does not need a difficult route, he does well on any kind of route. It is always the riders who make a route difficult. I think it will be a straight duel between the two. Armstrong has done everything for it, and we have already seen that he is a good time trialist on those kinds of routes. The route is completely flat, and the wind can play a decisive role. But other than that there are no major difficulties. The legs will do the talking there. The material and the positions on the bikes won't make any difference between those two riders. How about the team time trial? There won't be any big time gaps in the TTT. It is more likely to lose time in the mountains. However, every lost second counts, just as in any time trial. In the TTT, it is also important to demonstrate the strength of a team and to ride well. You don't necessarily have to win but you need to be among the strongest teams. It also has a tactical significance. If you ride a good TTT, all riders are placed well in the GC. Then you have more tactical options. Where do you want to put pressure on Lance Armstrong and his team? Immediately in the time trial. How will the team ride in the mountain stages? Of course, that depends on the situation in the race. In Vinokourov, Klöden and possibly Sevilla, we hope to have offensive riders who will be able to put pressure on the other riders. We won't make any specific plans three weeks prior to the first mountain stage. We will have to wait and see. We have to be ready for the Tour as a whole and then go day by day and concentrate on the high points individually. Why has there been no training camp in the Alps but only in the Pyrenees? The passes in the Alps were still closed and we ran out of time as the Tour de Suisse was approaching. In addition, the GC will probably be decided in the Pyrenees this year. Therefore it was very interesting to take a look at stage 14 and stage 15. We did that in the first week of June. Prior to this, we took a look at the time trial route in St. Etienne. It will probably be the toughest time trial at the Tour in recent years. Has Ullrich improved his ability to counter attacks in the mountains? He definitely rides in lower gears now. This is meant to make him more adaptable to attacks so he won't be dropped. In my view, he has improved in this respect. He has done a good job there. Do you have a better team than last year? We will see that in the Tour. We have selected a team which we think is the best one possible. We hope to be able to have an advantage due to our options at the top. Will Vinokourov get any liberties to ride for his own position in the GC or will he rather have to fulfill a role as a team rider? Jan will definitely be our captain, and Vino will be part of the general direction of the team. Everything else will be decided during the Tour. Vino has agreed on that and there won't be any problems. Would you like to keep Vinokourov on the team next year? Yes sure, we would like to keep him if we reach an agreement. He is a good rider. He has been on the team since 1998 and he is very reliable. We have made him an offer but no decision has been made yet. At this point, this is not a priority.

© Kathrin Bomans