Wow. Absolutely unbelievable. This has turned into the most incredible race I have seen in the 16 years since I've been following the Tour de France, as we just witnessed one of the most incredible turnarounds in cycling history. Floyd Landis, left for dead after cracking in yesterday's Stage 16, dropping from 1st to 11th overall, 8:08 behind the leader, went out and dominated Stage 17, taking back nearly all his deficit to rise all the way into 3rd place, 30 seconds behind. What a shocking 24-hour difference.
Perhaps even more remarkable is that the race leader with only 3 stages to go, with the big mountains now behind us - remains the unbelievable Oscar Pereiro, a name not ever mentioned as a pre-race favorite, even though he finished 10th the last two Tours, and even though the Top 5 of last year's Tour were not competing. Pereiro showed his strength again today, able to withstand another assault by Carlos Sastre, as well as the assault by Landis, and he maintains the yellow jersey. No one will expect him to hold it through the Stage 19 individual time trial, but no one expected anything that has happened. And Sastre showed that he is the strongest and most consistent climber among the leaders in this year's Tour, breaking away from the peloton on the final mountain to chase a single leader for the second straight major Alps stage. Yesterday, he came 2nd to Michael Rasmussen's solo breakaway. Today it was Landis that he was 2nd to, and it puts him 2nd overall with Saturday's time trial as the only difference maker remaining.
And so those are the three, 30 seconds separating them. The American who became the race favorite in the Pyrenees, fell completely apart when he just didn't have it yesterday, but is back at the top in just one day. The Spaniard who was expected to spend the Tour as the mountain companion for team leader Ivan Basso, but who has now snatched the team lead for CSC, who have gone from completely destroyed after week one to the top team in the Tour. And the other Spaniard, the forgotten man among the contenders, who grabbed 30 minutes on a great breakaway a week ago to put himself back into the Tour, and now he has held on through the toughest stages of them all. One of them will win the 2006 Tour de France.
Here are the standings going into the final 3 stages. They should not change through Friday's mostly flat transition stage, meaning the time trial on the penultimate day of this year's Tour should decide things.
- Oscar Pereiro (ESP) CEI 0'00"
- Carlos Sastre (ESP) CSC 0'12"
- Floyd Landis (USA) PHO 0'30"
- Andreas Kloden (GER) TMO 2'29"
- Cadel Evans (AUS) DVT 3'08"
- Denis Menchov (RUS) RAB 4'14"
- Cyril Dessel (FRA) AG2R 4'24"
- Christophe Moreau (FRA) AG2R 5'45"
- Haimer Zubeldia (ESP) EUK 8'16"
- Michael Rogers (AUS) TMO 12'13"
- Frank Schleck (LUX) CSC 13'48"
- Michael Boogerd (NED) RAB 13'52"
And here's how the contenders finished in the individual time trial on Stage 7, which may or may not be a good indicator of how they will perform on Saturday. Sergei Honchar won the stage, but Floyd Landis came in 2nd.
- Pereiro: 23rd, 2'41" behind
- Sastre: 18th, 2'11"
- Landis: 2nd, 1'01"
- Kloden: 8th, 1'43"
- Evans: 11th, 1'49"
That time trial was 52 kilometers long, over rolling hills. This time trial is a massive 57 kilometers, and over bigger hills. But Landis certainly looks to have an edge on Sastre and Pereiro, although not nearly enough to guarantee overall victory. It should be an incredible finish to an amazing race so far.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Posted by: zzzzzzzzz | July 20, 2006 at 10:37 PM
What a surprise... an unpredictable tour now that Lance and the cheaters that tried to catch him are gone.
F Basso!
Posted by: LegFuJohnson | July 20, 2006 at 11:13 PM
Also the most exciting Tour since Lance's first victory (which was the year of the last big doping scandal). But I've followed this event since 1989 or so and I've suffered through the 5 year Miguel Indurain dominance and the 7 year Lance Armstrong dominance, so it's a revelation to have a race that's up for grabs going into the final weekend. Especially when any of 3 riders could win it!
Posted by: Bill | July 21, 2006 at 08:56 AM
Wouldn't a Clerks 2 preview/Clerks retrospective be more timely today than yet another long Tour de France recap?
Posted by: Jay | July 21, 2006 at 09:34 AM