This Tour has been such a wild ride - on Wednesday, Floyd Landis completely cracked. He was isolated from his team and was dropped by the attack group. He finished the stage 10 minutes off the leader, in 20th place. That was until yesterday. He starting the stage with a 10 minute deficit and came off the front of the peloton on the first climb with a group of attackers including Sastre and Pereiro - the two guys sitting in lead - then he dropped them and finished the stage 5 1/2 minutes ahead everyone else. This is unheard of, Phil and Paul(commentators) were calling this the greatest single day performance in modern cycling. I would say Lance's performance in 99' Tour - Race to the top of Haut a Comp would give yesterday a run for it's money - if I remember correctly he beat the rest of the field by 15 minutes that day, tough call I guess. Pretty impressive either way.
Landis is now only 30 seconds out of the yellow jersey, with two stages left. Saturday is a big day - the last individual time trial and the Landis' opportunity to win the Tour. In the first individual time trial he dominated, beating Oscar Pereiro's time by more that 7 minutes. The peloton is rolling into Paris on Sunday. I suggest you watch it, pretty cool seeing the peloton roll down the Champs-Elysees and see the sprinters run it out for the last of the sprinter's points and the green jersey.
In honor of Floyd's incredible performance yesterday, I gave stay classy some cycling graphics. Pretty sharp - eh?
Wow. If this turns out to be true, it's going to be extremely upsetting. I would imagine that it is true, seeing as he has refused to comment on the situation. I suppose you could also include that amazing single stage performance in the Tour as supporting evidence. But, I also heard that he was taking Cortisone shots in his hip throughout the Tour, which could lead to high levels of testosterone. It will be interesting to see how if turns out -- if Floyd is found guilty they will give the race to Oscar Pereiro.
