Gimme Back My Bullets

If Floyd did have a Skynyrd song going through his head, this was definitely the tune of the day. But mustering up so much as a meagre hum looked like it was well beyond his capacities today. Stage 16 was rated the Queen stage of the Tour--the hardest stage--with two HC climbs and another uphill finish. And it was clearly one mountain too many for Floyd. He ran out of ammunition on today's last climb. He was completely and utterly out of gas. I'm not sure whether the appropriate metaphor is that he exploded or simply wilted away. But either way, his performance today was epic in all the wrong ways. And so his dream of winning the Tour comes horribly, devastatingly crashing down to earth with the brutal thud of limp and lifeless corpse. Struggling to drag his body up that last mountain Floyd looked like he was dead today. In the end, he lost over 10 minutes to the stage winner, Michael Rasmussen, and plummeted 10 spots to 11th overall, now sitting at over 8 minutes back. Pereiro is back in yellow, and everything remains up in the air as to how this is finally going to play itself out. As sad as it was to watch today's stage unfold, this is the most exciting Tour in years in terms of the race itself.

PezCycling News has the best report. Bobby Julich assumes that Floyd simply bonked. But Floyd's trainer, Allen Lim, says that's not what happened. But most significant of all are Floyd's own reflections on the day. He seems to be handling it about as well as one could possibly expect. Hopefully he can bounce back tomorrow, and maybe even win the final time trial.