resurrection

First of all, I need to stress that I am not making any of this up. That needs to be said because today we witnessed a staggering, unfathomably dominant performance at the Tour. In fact, this has to rank up there as one of the most epic demonstrations of courage in the history of this fabled race. To say this stage was unbelievable is like saying that southern Manitoba is flat. I still find it hard to comprehend what I just watched unfold today in the Alps.

Left for dead just 24 hours ago, his dream of winning the Tour seemingly shattered, Floyd rode himself back into contention today. He could have been forgiven for throwing in the towel after yesterday's disaster. But Floyd says he came here to win the Tour, and apparently he's not going to quit until the final lap of the Champs Elysees on Sunday. He's got his bullets back and more.

Since he began the day a whopping 8:08 behind Pereiro, he had to make his move early. It was not an option to try and take back that much time by waiting to attack on the final climb, as we've become accustomed to in the Lance Armstrong era. It is definitely possible to lose 8 minutes in one climb, as Floyd showed yesterday. But to close that kind of gap over a whole group of contenders is simply not possible. So Floyd attacked at the base of the first climb, only 50 km into the race. Forget Armstrong. Floyd is an old school kind of guy, and this was an attack reminiscent of "the Cannibal," Eddy Merckx, whose son Axel rides on Floyd's team, and who apparently phoned last night to help plot the counter-attack. Others tried to hold on to Floyd's wheel, but none of them were able to keep up with his torrid pace. "He was like a motor bike. He was unbelievable," gushed T-Mobile's Michael Rogers. And once he got a gap, he just kept going faster and faster, like a great southern rock anthem. It must have been Freebird he was singing today, as he soloed his way over all the day's big climbs. The fact that today's stage was basically up and down all day long was no doubt a significant factor in Floyd's favour and a key part of his tactics for the day. There wern't really any flat sections for the peloton to benefit from drafting off one another. And unlike yesterday, he made sure to take on plenty of food and water today. It seemed like he was dousing himself every 5 minutes, keeping nice and cool.

At one point, his lead swelled to over 9 minutes. That's when Carlos Sastre, sitting 2nd on the GC, 6:15 ahead of Floyd, at the start of the day, dropped the rest and tried to salvage his own chances. Sastre was able to cut Floyd's time gap to just over 5 minutes by the time he crested the last climb of the day. But Floyd is much better than most at going down a mountain, and he was able to increase his lead by another 40 seconds by the time he got back down to the finish in Morzine. Combined with the bonus time he picked up by winning the stage and all the intermediate sprints along the way, Floyd almost took back the entire deficit he had to Sastre heading into the day! Pereiro was able to hang onto his yellow jersey, but just barely.

Floyd now catapaults back up to 3rd place, 30 seconds behind Pereiro and a mere 18 back of Sastre. Incredibly, he's back to 2 minutes ahead of Kloden, Evans, and Menchov, who appeared to be the main challengers only a week ago. It's tempting to say that their hopes for the podium are over. But given the rule of anarchy governing this year's Tour, it would be wise to wait for the fat lady to start bellowing before making any decisive pronouncements.

Yesterday Floyd conceded, "I don't expect to win this Tour anymore." But at the same time he vowed not to give up, saying "It's never easy to get back eight minutes but I'll keep fighting to the end and try." Interviewed after the stage today, Floyd says he now believes he can win this Tour. At the very least, he refuses simply to give it away: "I told everybody last night that if somebody wants to win this race, they're going to have to earn it." All of a sudden, the burden of proof seems to have shifted once again and the stage is now set for a thrilling showdown in Saturday's 57 km time trial. Floyd is a much better time triallist than either Pereiro or Sastre: Sastre finished 1:11 behind Floyd in the first TT, and Pereiro was 1:41 back. "I'm confident in my time trialing, if you saw today, then you probably agree with me," Landis said. "I want to win the Tour, whatever I've got to do. If I had a bad day, I had to make up for it." It looks like he just might be able to pull it off.

No matter how this plays out, it's fair to say that Floyd has made this one of the most exciting Tours ever. Not to take anything away from his dominance, but Lance Armstrong took all the suspense out of the Tour for seven years. This year, however, with the jostling of positions and the makeup of the GC changing almost daily, a sense of dramatic tension has been restored in a big way. This Tour is an emotional roller coaster, and there are still three days left to go.

Some post-race quotes:

Floyd Landis: “Yesterday had nothing to do with pressure. I felt bad from the beginning and it was not a day that you wanted to feel bad, there was no point on the course that you had any time to recover. It was a disaster. It may not have looked as though I was trying but it was as hard as I could go. I’d like to say that I was just trying to make the race exciting but that was all I had. I didn’t spend too much time thinking during today’s stage. The plan right at the beginning was to do what we did.

"After that, all I could do was hope that, behind me, they were disorganised or not strong enough to catch me. I didn’t have a whole lot of information, only the time differences every now and then but it’s hard to tell what’s going on behind. When the time gaps stay the same for a long period of time, I was pretty sure that they were working as hard as they could and that I was going to be OK. It wouldn’t be any fun if I told you what was going to happen next. What I hope happens is obvious, I’d like to win therace. The only decisive day left is the time trial and I’m fairly confident in my time trialling ability – assuming I didn’t overdo it today, and there’s a chance of that… but we’ll have to wait and see.”

Carlos Sastre: “I think we’ve done all we could, what happened today was that Landis was just very impressive. He’s got himself back into the race and he can now win it like the rest of us. The final time trial will show how much strength we’ve all got left, the desire we’ve got to win and it will depend a little on how well you go in that discipline.”

Phonak team manager John Lelangue: “Last night after the stage there was a catastrophic atmosphere but we were quick to respond. After dinner there was a bit of time to reflect everyone was really motivated to do something in the stage today. My father called me and said that we had to try everything and attack on the Col des Saisies. After all, we had nothing to lose. To finish sixth or 26th… it’s the same thing, so why not? Then this morning, Eddy Merckx called and told me the same thing, so we decided to do it. Now Floyd is in a really good position and has a big chance to win this race but something else can always happen… even tomorrow.”

Today's top 10:

1. Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak - 5.23.36 (37.175 km/h)
2. Carlos Sastre (Spa) Team CSC - 5.42
3. Christophe Moreau (Fra) AG2R-Prevoyance - 5.58
4. Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Fondital - 6.40
5. Michael Boogerd (Ned) Rabobank - 7.08
6. Frank Schleck (Lux) Team CSC - 7.08
7. Oscar Pereiro (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears - 7.08
8. Andreas Klöden (Ger) T-Mobile - 7.08
9. Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi - 7.08
10. Cadel Evans (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto - 7.20


Top 10 Overall:

1. Oscar Pereiro Sio (Sp), Caisse d'Epargne-I.B. - 80:08:49
2. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC - 00:12
3. Floyd Landis (USA), Phonak - 00:30
4. Andréas Klöden (G), T-Mobile - 02:29
5. Cadel Evans (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto - 03:08
6. Denis Menchov (Rus), Rabobank - 04:14
7. Cyril Dessel (F), Ag2r Prevoyance - 04:24
8. Christophe Moreau (F), Ag2r Prevoyance - 05:45
9. Haimar Zubeldia (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi - 08:16
10. Michael Rogers (Aus), T-Mobile - 12:13

See PezCyclingnews and VeloNews for full reports, pictures, and complete results.

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