Jul 19, 2006
Cracked!
It’s been a long, long time since a Yellow Jersey favorite has cracked so badly. Not since Jan Ullrich in 1998 or Miguel Indurain in 1996, or Lance Armstrong in 2003 or when…who knows. Floyd Landis looked very strong on L’Alpe D;Huez and previously in the Pyrennes. Even tough the Phonak team was not that strong, it seemed that Landis was on his way to his first Tour de France victory. But, today’s stage showed a weaker Landis who uncharacteristically rode near the back of the field. Once the attacks came, Landis had no strength to reply and suffered horribly on the climb. Ten minutes after Rasmussen came in for the victory Landis limped in being towed by Axel Merckx. Landis fell all the way to 11th place on GC and now looks to be out of contention for the Yellow Jersey at over eight minutes behind Oscar Periero. What happened? Was it the hips? a cold? sore legs from L’Alpe D’Huez?
One reporter for Active.com pegged that there was a problem with Floyd Landis just after the L’Alpe D’Huez stage. Martin Dugard wrote:
The mood around here is that the race is Landis’s to lose. But so many things can go wrong. For starters, he had a terrible cough during the post-race press conference. Though Landis was clear-eyed and articulate, he had to stop several times to hack. Whether there’s something in his lungs or not, only Landis knows, but that’s the sort of thing that can steal energy and competitive efficiency. You’d better believe that other teams will try to capitalize on that soon. They know that Landis’s legs are cooked after today, and will send lesser riders out to attack, hoping to find a chink in Landis’s armor.
The epic implosion of Landis is somewhat reminiscent of Ivan Basso’s crack in last year’s Giro. Basso came back a few days later to win a mountain stage and the final TT. If Landis can recover enough for tomorrow, he could put a big stamp on the Tour to show that this was just a bad day. His Yellow Jersey chase is mostly over, but the way this Tour de France has gone, I am not counting anyone out.
Tomorrow’s final Alpine stage is like game 7 of the NBA fnals or the Hockey playoffs. Anyone who wants to win the Tour has to show up and make a statement. Everyone in the top ten could potentially win the Tour in some way. Riders who have cracked one day come back recharged the next. So it is anyone’s guess who will win this year.
Team CSC and T-Mobile look to be to two powerhouses. T-Mobile has quite a few guys that can help Kloden. CSC is the best team in the Tour right now and the way Sastre attacked today should have T-Mobile shaking a bit. With Schleck playing support and powerhouses like Zabriske, Voight and Vande Velde CSC will have enough firepower to add another Grand Tour win to their palmares.
Damiano Cunego is having a great Tour, he is not far from taking over the Best Young Rider competiton from Markus Fotham. He came close to winning on L’Alpe D’Huez and finished respectably in today’s stage. Cunego could probably sneak out a stage win while the top GC guys battle it out for Yellow.