Lance Armstrong finished ninth in Thursday's time trial at the Tour de Georgia, nearly two minutes behind the winner in an all-out style of cycling he usually dominates.
Another American, Floyd Landis, won the third stage in 39 minutes, 58.09 seconds. The other spots on the podium also were claimed by US riders -- David Zabriskie in second and Christopher Baldwin third.
Racing in a light rain, Armstrong failed to make up ground on the climb up Mount Alto and had no chance of closing the gap by the time he pedaled onto the slick streets of downtown Rome.
PHOTO: AFP
"Clearly, I'm disappointed," said Armstrong, who could manage a time of only 41:44.87. "I didn't feel great, but I thought I'd do a better ride than that. I'm disappointed and [it] clearly shows I have some work to do."
Armstrong plans to retire this summer after going for a seventh straight victory in the Tour de France. Already, he's the only cyclist to win the world's most famous race six times.
The Tour de Georgia is a tuneup, a six-day chance for Armstrong to gauge his conditioning against the best field that will be assembled on Americans roads .
He won this race a year ago, taking control in the time trial held over the same 29.9km course in northwest Georgia. Armstrong's winning time was 39:51.78 -- far better than he managed on Thursday as leader of the Discovery Channel team.
"I'm probably behind on my fitness," Armstrong said. "Last year I definitely got a jump on fitness, and this year I was way behind. I thought I caught up, but like I said, now I know I haven't. Now it's time to re-evaluate the season."
With only 2 1/2 months to go before the Tour de France, Armstrong knows he must step up his training if he wants to sip one more glass of champagne on the Champs-Elysees.
"We just have to improve from here," he said. "It means gaining fitness and losing weight, focusing on every little aspect of the sport -- the diet, the bike, the training, the team. I think they are even a little bit behind, so we've got work to do."
Landis, who was Armstrong's right-hand man in several Tours with the old US Postal Service team, is now the lead cyclist for Swiss-based Phonak. It felt a little strange to finish ahead of the former boss.
"He's not in the shape he was last year," Landis said. "I don't think he has huge aspirations here. He won't be shattered if he doesn't win this race. I think there's other guys to watch."
Over the next two days, the race moves to the grueling mountain stages in north Georgia.
That's another Armstrong specialty, the part of the race where he usually leaves everyone huffing and puffing in his wake. He's got plenty of time to make up, beginning with Friday's 215km stage from Dalton to Dahlonega.
Landis has the yellow jersey and a lead of 1:42 over Armstrong, who dropped to ninth overall.
After waking to a warm, sunny morning, the leaders had to ride in drastically different conditions. Clouds moved in, the wind picked up, temperatures fell and light but steady showers dampened the course.
Armstrong had reason to play it safe, not wanting to risk a nasty fall that could ruin his Tour de France hopes.
"He was probably ultraconservative in the corners. I'm sure he lost some time there," Baldwin said. "Still, you don't expect to see him that far back, even being conservative. He's Lance Armstrong. This was probably just a training day for him."
Zabriskie, another ex-Armstrong lieutenant who now rides for Danish-based Team CSC, is 19 seconds behind Landis in the overall rankings. Baldwin is third, 22 seconds off the pace for the Navigators Insurance team.
Olympic medalist and CSC leader Bobby Julich is lurking 28 seconds behind in fourth, giving Americans the top four spots on the leaderboard.
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