In case you were wasting time at work this morning instead of home watching the Tour de France like you should have, you missed what has already been called the single greatest one-day performance on a bike in the modern days of the Tour.The Setup: Floyd Landis from San Diego, team leader for Phonak and yellow jersey wearer after 15 stages, struggled on the alpine stage 16 and lost the yellow jersey and 8:08 in time to Oscar Pierero. That, for the lay race fan, is typically an insurmountable lead with only one day in the Alps left. (Generally the Tour de France is won and lost in the Alps. It's difficult to make up time on the more flat stages) In addition to being the Phonak team leader, Landis also bears the responsibility of being the American heir apparent to Lance Armstrong who retired from prfessional cycling after last year's 7th straight victory. Not only does he have those shoes to fill, he announced a week ago that he requires full hip replacement surgery as soon as the Tour is over (the hip is not exactly a seldom used joint in cycling).
The Ride: Having only one realistic day to try to fight back into contention and knowing that he needs to make up at least 7 minutes on Pierero and 7 other guys, to have a chance to wear yellow in Paris, Floyd attacked the peloton as soon as they hit the first climb of 4 difficult climbs today. He picked up the pace and nobody could keep up with him going up the mountain. He continued to put distance and time between himself and the yellow jersey and his other rivals. Alone, he toiled in the saddle chasing the earlier break-away of 12 or so non-contenders. After the struggle he endured yesterday, nobody thought he had anything left in the tank. He steadily closed the gap with the break-away and passed them, receiving unbelieving double-takes from each one as he rode up the second mountain past them. The peloton started to panic as they realized that he was gaining significant time on them so they started to pursue. Team after team took their turn setting the pace to catch Landis but he would have none of it. Only one man stood between Landis and the finish line in the alpine villiage of Morzine-Avoriaz. Landis caught him on the third climb of the day. Together they rode with Landis setting the pace and the T-Mobile rider not doing any of the pace-setting. (Generally riders help each other on a break-away and then fight for the finish once they've beaten the rest of the field) On the final climb, the Col de Joux-Plane with a gut-wrenching 8% grade over 11.7 Km, Landis, tired of dragging the T-Mobile rider up and down hills all afternoon, gave him a glance and took off at a blistering uphill pace, leaving the T-Mobile guy to suffer alone. Now the only question was could Landis maintain his lead and win the stage. He crossed the summit with a 6:35 lead with Carlos Sastre of Team CSC, a formidable climber and serious podium contender in this year's Tour, in hot pursuit. Landis needed to gain 8:09 on Pierero and not let Sastre gain on him too much.
The Finish: Landis summits Col de Joux-Plane with a 6:35 lead on Carlos Sastre and 7:00 on Pierero in the yellow jersey. The finish is all down hill and Landis, being a former mountain bike champion, is a fearless, superb descender. Floyd sprints across the finish line for his first ever Tour stage win and he's gained an additional 30 second on Sastre and put still more distance between himself and the yellow jersey. The clock starts ticking and Sastre digs down and finds the energy to cross with a mere12 second lead on Landis followed by Pierero who finishes having relinquished all but 30 seconds of his lead on Landis from yesterday. It is agreed by the commentary team that Landis's performance will go down in the history of the Tour as the single greatest individual performance in Tour history...and that's huge considering all the great performances Lance turned in.
Recap: Landis is in the catbirds seat going into a flat stage tomorrow and a long individual time trial the next day. Landis is by far the best time-trialer of the stage contenders in the Tour this year and can surely make up a lousy 30 seconds that day, on his way to wearing yellow in Paris on Sunday.
Vive la Floyd!!!
7 comments:
And I thought The World Cup was boring. Do these guys have cards on their spokes? Does Huffy have a team? Oh well I guess I'm just jaded because this takes place in that sissy country France. I refuse to support anything they do, even if the Americam wins. I hope he pees on the Champs as he finishes his victory Now I might watch that!
Now, now...I'm no fan of the French. That should be obvious if you've read more than one or two of my postings. That being said, if you've ever spend any time on a road bike, you have to acknowledge the supreme athletic effort that is required to finish a single stage of the Tour much less win the dadgum thing.
As for boring, you are entitled to your immediate-gratification oriented, American opinion. However, if you were to watch a stage through to the end, you would see that there are hundreds of moves(plays if you're a football fan) during a single stage affecting the entire race.
Look, I'll be the first to criticize and ridicule western Europe, but as a sports-loving American, I can put aside my politics and appreciate the sport of professional cycling.
I can't stand the politics of Sting, Dave Matthews and others but that doesn't stop me from buying their CD's and appreciating their music.
Some things transcend political differences and the Tour de France is the biggie in that department.
Reid, I'll be the first to admit that I channel-surf while watching a particular stage when nothing particularly exciting is happening.
Conversely, I will remain transfixed, glued to the the TV during an important mountain stage for instance...when much is on the line for an American or one of my favorite European riders.
I don't expect everybody to share my enthusiasm for cycling and concede that the excitement level is somewhat less than for a Georgia/Auburn game for instance.
Yep, I'm a Floyd fan. You know the Europeans are steamed that the yellow jersey is in America for another year (8 in a row).
The Tour is just another example of when the Americans decide to take up something, they go all out until they dominate...which probably goes a long way to explaining why the Euros dislike us so much.
I always say, "If you don't like getting beaten...then win."
i admit to getting caught up in the tour as well. not to the extent that Ed does but i do enjoy parts of it. i however, DO NOT LIKE the sit-up-on-the-bike shot at the end of the race. there are somethings better left to the imagination
Ed; No comment now that your hero is a testosterone injector. Cheaters ! This is why the Muslims hate you.
If it turns out to be true that injected steroids explains Landis' otherwise heroic ride on stage 17, then nobody will be more disappointed than me.
That being said, cheating in a bike race in no way rises to the level of slaughtering of civilians or hiding like sissy weasels behind the skirts of women while shooting at the enemy.
As diaappointing as learning that Landis cheated will be, nothing disappoints like the abject failure of human beings that radical jihadists have turned out to be.
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