Floyd takes charge

The major players layed down their big cards today at the Tour. And Floyd played the biggest card of all. The time for bluffing is over. This was a killer stage, with 4 Cat 1 climbs and 1 HC mountain. Floyd took a page out of his old boss's playbook today. Just like Armstrong always used to, he made a decisive statement in the first hard mountain stage. He finished 3rd in an exclusive lead group of three, alongside Dennis Menchov and Levi Leipheimer. And in the process he put time into some of his major rivals. Cadel Evans finished 17 seconds back, and Andreas Kloden conceded a minute and a half. It was Kloden's T-Mobile team that turned up the heat on the second last climb, forcing everyone with aspirations for the overall victory to get serious. The pressure ended up whittling the lead group down to 18 riders. And on the final climb Menchov's Rabobank team took over. Rasmussen and Boogerd kept up an infernal pace as the lead group continued to shrink one rider at a time until only 5 were left. Finally, Landis and Menchov stepped on the gas, spitting Evans and Carlos Sastre out the back end.

Almost as exciting is the fact that Discovery Channel seems to have completely imploded. Heading into the Tour with what they claimed were 4-5 potential contenders, it doesn't look like they've got any left at this point. Jose Azevedo is their highest placed rider at 7:27 back. Their man for the future, Popovych, is 9 minutes down. And as for all the talk about George Hincapie as a potential GC guy: he's over 23 minutes back. And Savoldelli is still further behind. They've had a good run for the past 7 years, but this year it looks like it will finally be sombody else's turn. I guess they should have tried a little bit harder to keep Floyd a few years back.

The top ten of the GC now looks like this:

1 Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak 49.18.07
2 Cyril Dessel (Fra) AG2R-Prevoyance 0.08
3 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank 1.01
4 Cadel Evans (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto 1.17
5 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Team CSC 1.52
6 Andreas Klöden (Ger) T-Mobile 2.29
7 Michael Rogers (Aus) T-Mobile 3.22
8 Juan Miguel Mercado (Spa) Agritubel 3.33
9 Christophe Moreau (Fra) AG2R-Prevoyance 3.44
10 Marcus Fothen (Ger) Gerolsteiner 4.17

For a full report, see VeloNews. See also the post-stage interview with Floyd from cyclingnews, which includes this incredibly stupid exchange:

Q: Does the religion of your mother allow her to watch television - will she have seen her son take the yellow jersey?
FL: It's not so much that she can't watch television; it's more that they don't have the desire to have it in the house. But she will be watching from somewhere, I'm sure.

Q: Can you give us a quick briefing on your childhood, your family, what got you into cycling and the motivation behind that?
FL: Nah, I probably can't give you a quick briefing on that... I grew up in a very religious family, I have four sisters and a brother, all of whom are wonderful brothers and sisters. I have exceptional parents; I happen to be a little bit high-strung for that lifestyle (laughs) - dunno if you can use that about yourself - anyway, a friend of mine and I got into mountain biking when we were 15-16. We started doing local MTB races, which led me to... this. I skipped a lot there, but you get the idea!

Q: Did you parents support your bike racing?
FL: For a while, they were not so happy about it. But they've adjusted, I think. Why? The Mennonites tend to stay away from professional sport, and anything generally... famous, I guess. I don't know. That's a tough one. But they're fine with it now.

The top picks for the podium now look to be Landis, Menchov, and Evans. Too bad for Leipheimer that he had such a disastrous time trial. He'd be right up there too. But after a few relatively flat stages over the next few days, the Alps are still looming on the horizon and it's always possible that this could change yet.

Most importantly, Floyd rode today like he's planning to win the Tour. Doesn't he look nice in yellow?