"...that it is I who should ride the TT in the Olympics, not YMD."
From http://www.erikdekker.nl/column_index.php , my translation:
Interesting week
Last week in the Dauphiné I rode between a few candidate Tour winners
and that was interesting. Especially the uphill TT on the Ventoux was a
serious test for anyone going for a good classification in the Tour. The
winner was Mayo in a new record time. Tyler Hamilton also proved to be
on schedule and was trailing by 35 seconds. Lance Armstrong lost 2
minutes and he was not happy with that. Our GC riders were in the top 10
but were 3.5 minutes behind. Quite tolerable, but Michael Rasmussen had
hoped for more, but he had stomach troubles. Immediately after the TT he
said he wanted to lose 10 minutes in the next stage and to win the stage
after that. He was still 9th on the GC! But he did it exactly as planned
and won by 8 minutes like it was nothing! That also brought him back to
7th. Even better. Just shoot me, but it was a really excellent effort. I
can say Rasmussen and also Leipheimer are ready for the big show. Freire
and Kroon not yet. That is to say, both were not within the time limit
on the Ventoux and had to head home prematurely. Both with different
causes, but still. It's not ideal. Because I was at the Dauphiné I could
not participate in the Dutch TT championships. It was won by my namesake
and the biggest talent of Holland, Thomas Dekker. After that the
discussion was fired up if it should now be Thomas that goes to the
Olympics in that event. I too would like to go there as a time trialist
and that leaves the national coach, Knetemann, with a decision to make
in the next few weeks. Comparing is not possible, because we are not
competing in the same races. The Tour prologue is an indication, but
that's all. Suppose I end up 21st. What do you do with such a result?
And in the long TTs in the Tour I will definitely not prove myself
worthy. Those days are very important foremost to conserve as much
energy as possible for other, more interesting days. Moreover, a
"bike-off" [analogy with new Dutch word 'skate-off' used to indicate
ultimate selection event in speedskating between 2 or 3 contenders,
introduced 2 years ago] does not sound like a very good idea to me. An
interesting week therefore, and I didn't even talk one word about the
European football championships. Cheers, Erik Dekker.