Floyd Landis is wearing the race leader's yellow jersey again at the Tour de France, regaining it on Tuesday in the punishing Alps, where a former teammate-turned-rival made quite a name for himself.
The teammate, Lance Armstrong, who happened to be in L'Alpe d'Huez as a cheerleader, ended up witnessing the American's winning ride.
"I'd love to see the jersey stay in the States," Armstrong said.
PHOTO: AFP
Though he admitted "a little friction here and there" with Landis in the past, none of that was apparent on this day.
"If I was a betting man, I'd certainly put my money there right now. Floyd has been great all year long," he said.
And all he needs to do is stay that way through Sunday, with the bright maillot jaune on his back.
PHOTO: AFP
"I would like to keep it. I can't think of a reason why I would give it away now, but if that scenario arises then it's still a possibility, I guess -- but it would be unlikely," Landis said.
While not by design, Landis regained the lead by hugging the wheels of one top rival and outpacing the others he worries about most. He cemented his status as the man to beat by placing fourth in the 15th stage, the Tour's entree into the Alps, with a grueling uphill finish at the legendary mountain.
That performance pushed Landis a bit closer to victory in the first Tour after Armstrong won cycling's premier race a record seven times.
Landis, who grew up in eastern Pennsylvania's Mennonite country, plans to ride conservatively in two more tough Alpine stages, with a penultimate individual time trial stage on tap before Sunday's finish on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.
Now, potential contenders like Germany's Andreas Kloeden, Australia's Cadel Evans, Spain's Carlos Sastre and Russia's Denis Menchov will have to outpace Landis to win. And they are all within three minutes of him.
Landis said his main concern was Kloeden, a T-Mobile rider who finished second to Armstrong in the 2004 Tour. The German had lost time in the Pyrenees last week, but was the only cyclist to keep up with him in the stage.
"I'd never written him off completely and I can't do so with the other guys, either. I have to be careful that I, myself, don't have a bad day. Things change quickly," Landis said.
The byproduct of hewing to the German's wheel was that Landis finished 1:39 ahead of Spain's Oscar Pereiro, who had seized the yellow jersey from him on Saturday, and reclaimed the race lead.
"It was just as well with me if Pereiro kept the lead, but I had to stick with Kloeden -- that was my objective," Landis said.
Riding in the leader's shirt puts extra pressure on racers and their teams to protect it by, among other things, keeping to the front of the pack and trying to avoid crashes and other hazards.
With Armstrong retired, the race was blown open even wider on the eve of the July 1 start when nine riders, including prerace favorites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, were sent home after their names turned up in a doping investigation in Spain.
Promising young rider Frank Schleck of Luxembourg won Tuesday's stage, leading the way through a sea of fans who lined the 21 hairpin turns on L'Alpe d'Huez, many waving flags like matadors in front of the ascending riders.
Schleck took 4 hours, 52 minutes, 22 seconds to complete the 187km trek from Gap, in the Alpine foothills, through the Col d'Izoard and the Col du Lautaret climbs before the finish.
World champion Tom Boonen of Belgium dropped out of the race after scaling the Col d'Izoard, which, like the L'Alpe d'Huez, is so tough that it defies classification in cycling's ranking system.
Landis and Kloeden finished 1:10 behind Schleck. Sastre was 1:35 back, Menchov was 2:21 off the pace and Evans was 2:49 behind.
A runner who stopped during a marathon in China to pose doing the splits and another who hoarded energy gels have been banned for two years, the local athletics association said yesterday. The incidents happened during Sunday’s marathon in Sichuan Province’s Chengdu and were widely shared online. Videos showed a female runner stopping suddenly and dropping to the ground in the splits position, holding up her arms in a heart shape as she apparently posed for a photograph. She “committed obstructive fouls during the race, affecting the safe participation of other runners,” the Sichuan Athletics Association said in a statement, which identified
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
RSS