Floyd Hanging Tough

The tough mountain stages are all done and while Floyd was unable to hang with the big guns--Armstrong, Basso and, a little less emphatically Ullrich--he's still showing that he's one of the top riders around. Yesterday he stayed around until the very end, before dropping back by about a minute behind Armstrong and Basso to finish 6th. Today's stage was murderous--with 4 Cat 1 climbs before an uphill finish on the unratable Pla-d'Adet. Not even Ullrich could stick with Armstrong and Basso today, while Floyd finished in 19th place about 4:30 behind. He now sits in 7th place overall at 9:33 behiond Armstrong. 7th place in the TdF is not too shabby. Hopefully he can put in a strong showing on Saturday's time trial and hold that position or maybe even move up a spot or two. As for now, it seems like everyone's waiting until next year to see what it's like to race the Tour without some guy named Lance.