zippyjuan

With the retirement of seven time champion Lance Armstrong and the removal via a drug scandal of most of the other top contenders, people could be forgiven for not having as much interest in this year's Tour. But they missed an amazing performance today by American Floyd Landis. It looked like the Tour was over for him. He gave a gritty performance on the grueling and legenday L'Alpe d'Huez two days ago and took over the Yellow race leader jersey, but yesterday he seemed to pay a high price for that effort when he finished about ten minutes behind his major rivals Carlos Sastre and Oscar Pereiro, who claimed the Yellow Jersey for himself and an eight minute lead over Landis. These two should only have to keep an eye on each other with only today's difficult stage and a time trial on Saturday the remaining chances for anyone to have a shot at the title.

The stage today was very hot- as it has been all week, and is fairly long and includes three difficult climbs- two Category 1 climbs and one Hors Category- the most difficult rating. It began fairly normally for this type of stage- with various groups of riders (the weaker climbers) trying to get ahead of the pack before the climb so that when the road turned upwards they would be falling back to the field instead of farther behind them. By the start of the first climb, one group had achieved a ten minute advantage. Nobody of importance, so the field paid them no notice. They knew they would catch them soon. As the main pack reached the base of the hill, Floyd Landis moved to the front. His rivals were not worried. He was far behind them. Let him pull us up the hill- he will only tire himself for later in the day. Besides, it is hot. Let us conserve our own energy and watch each other.

But Landis had a plan. He had to have a bold plan if he was to have any hope of getting back into the race. Tomorrow will be a flat stage and he can recover then. If he does not make up enough time today, tomorrow does not matter. So as they started up the Col des Saissies, he makes his move and takes off. He has no teammates to help him and it would only be a fool who would try to take off alone this early in the day- there are some eighty five miles to the finish line. Breakaways are nearly always swallowed up on such days. Landis is flying up the mountain. By the time he reaches the top, he is now cut seven minutes off the riders in front and is over three minutes up on Periero. He tucks as low as he can get on his bike on the descent and is screaming along - clocked as high as 80 miles per hour down the other side. By the time we start up the second major climb, the Col des Aravis, the lead group has split and he joins with the first bunch- who seem surprised to see the lone rider tagging behind them, catching a breather. Landis is grabbing lots of water and dousing himself trying to stay cool. Perhaps it was the heat which caused him to lose time yesterday. Landis is the second rider to make the top of the Col des Aravis and wastes little time resting there as he again charges down a mountain. He has been able to claim 5:20 on his rivals. They will have to consider trying to minimize the damages soon.

A puncture slows Landis near the bottom of the final climb, the Col de la Colombiere where he waits for a replacement bike from his support van. He grimaces as the steps off from his painful hip that will require a replacement at the end of his season. It is also painful to sleep, but the way his body fits on the bicycle actually relieves the pain so he can ride more easily than he can walk. He is quickly back on his way down the road. More water. Landis leads T-Mobile rider Sinkewitz over the top of that climb, now seven minutes ahead of the current race leader. They have been dropping the other riders that were with them along the way.

Unbelieveable! The pack is now chasing but Landis and Sinkewitz have picked up their pace too. At Cote de Chatillon-sur-Cluses, they are now nine minutes ahead! This puts Landis in the virtual yellow race leader's jersey for now. He must try to hold on. Slowly they chip away at the lead though. The moment of truth is coming. The Hors Category Col de Joux Plane. If he can hold his lead there, he will be in an excellent position. Once the other riders hit the climb, they will not be able to effectively draft off one another as they have been on the flat roads and so they will not have as easy of a time catching back up to Landis. The gap has dropped below 7:30. As he reaches the base of the climb, Landis tosses another bottle of water over his head and hits the pedals. He has somehow again found another gear in his legs as the incline begins. The persuers are now just six minutes back. Sinkewitz is not able to go and quckly finds himself two minutes back. Floyd is alone and flying. Sounds like a recently retired American.

The grueling climb is tearing apart the main field and riders are getting spread out all over the hill. Sastere will be the second rider to reach the top after Landis- just over five minutes later. Periero is struggling and comes by another minute and a half later. The finish is not at the top so again they grit their teeth to the wind and try to get to the bottom as quickly as they can. The crowds get larger and noisier as they near the finish line- chearing on the American for his amazing effort. First one in- Landis of course. How much time would he gain? Enough for the Yellow Jersey? Who is that coming next? It is Carlos Sastre. 5:42 behind Landis. Periero is the next one we are watching. There he comes. Seventh across the line. Time? How far back was he? Seven minutes and eight seconds. Just enough to keep the Yellow Jersey. But that could be in trouble. He is only twelve seconds ahead of Sastre in the overall standings and Landis' bold and daring move put him within striking distance at thirty seconds back.

Tomorrow is a pretty flat stage and the last chance for the non- contenders to try to get some glory and a day that the contenders will probably want to rest up for the time trial the next day which should decide the Tour winner. The exception would be if one of them felt they could get into a position to get a time bonus during the stage. Despite the absence of the top names, this has indeed been an exciting Tour. Or perhaps because of that. More riders were convinced that they had a shot after all and made more effort than they might have otherwise. Don't miss the time trial.

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zippyjuan

The top riders were content to just stay together in the main field today- saving their energy for Saturday's time trial. Landis is probably the strongest at time trialing among the three leaders but all must avoid accidents or punctures which could cost critical time. In 1989, French rider Laurent Fignon had a thirty second lead over American Greg Lemond going into the time trial and Fignon was faster than Lemond during that trial but he went off course at one point in the race and had to double back. It cost him the race- and he lost the Tour de France by a mere six seconds, the closest finish in Tour history.

cheapie

wOOt!

war the mennonite!!!

cheapie

oh yeah!!!! floyd is in yellow and has over a minute to spare going into paris tomorrow!!!!

zippyjuan

The day started out cloudy and hot but the clouds broke by the afternoon and it got so hot that they had to hose down the finish area to keep the road tar from melting. Ukranian Serhiy Honchar, riding for T-Mobile (Jan Ulrich's team, had he been allowed to ride) set a blistering pace on the 35 mile course of rolling hills. He caught the rider who started two minutes ahead of him and also the four minute man. He was four minutes faster than almost everyone. Floyd Landis was actually one second faster at the first checkpoint- the only rider to do that. But Landis was not racing against Honchar but the time of Oscar Periero who began the day with the Yellow Jersey and a thirty second advantage over Landis. Carlos Sastre stood in between the two, a mere twelve seconds behind Periero. Today will decide the race winner.

Landis has a different riding style from Armstrong, prefering to push a higher gear. Lance liked to use higher RPM for speed. Floyd kept in his crouched position for almost the entire race, only briefly coming off his saddle. A little over an hour after he set out, he came across the finish line 1:11 behind Honchar, presently third place behind Honchar's teammate Andreas Kloden. Since the start is in reverse order of their standing, we had to wait for Sastre and Periero to finish. Landis was about a minute ahead of Periero at the final check point and was the provisional leader at that point. Sastre was having a hard time on the course and was losing time. At the fininsh, Periero gave up 1:29 seconds to Landis, coming in fourth in the stage. Sastre finally arrived in 20th place, 4:42 seconds behind the winner. His time, combined with Kloden's effort put Kloden into third and gave him a spot on the final podium. The next American in was David Zabriskie in sixth place, 3:35 behind.

Sunday is a formality. Even the sprinter's jersey is decided at this point (the last two years this came down to the final day) so the riders will enjoy a luxurious ride to Paris and the Yellow Jersey will again belong to an American- great job Floyd Landis! He can savor his victory as he recovers from his hip replacement surgery.

Final standings (pending the ride to Paris)
1. Floyd Landis (USA - PHO)
2. Oscar Pereiro (ESP - CEI) - at 59"
3. Andreas Kloden (GER - TMO) - at 1'29"
4. Carlos Sastre (ESP - CSC) - at 3'13"
5. Cadel Evans (AUS - DVL) - at 5'08"

guiseppewv

Once again, ZJ, you have some great write-ups about the Tour!!!! Thanks, I really enjoyed them!!!!

Memo

Looks like he was "Super" for a reason:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...ing/index.html

nickel

damn.. why'd he go and do that?
and here i thought he was really amazing being that he needs hip replacement surgery and he still he won the Tour.

hmmmmmphfff.

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Jeffbx

Uh-oh - everyone's picking up on this:

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story...T=HCP&GT1=8393

guiseppewv

Hopefully the backup test will clear him. It would be a shame if the backup sample supports the initial test.

sizemic1

Well how else is a guy with a bum hip supposed to win? Sheesh.

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nickel

by overcoming the odds through hard work, dedication, and some luck sprinkled in there.

Memo

Still gonna mar his win, I think.

MikeD

No matter what the results of further tests show, the win is tarnished. The French would NEVER let this one go...

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clutchy

i'm a little confused, wouldn't the guy have uber high levels of testosterone after waging war on his opponents and destroying an 8 minute time deficit? I know i'd be chock full of it and it would probably be oozing out of my pores.

how are they going to tell what's natural and what isn't?


i'm so sick of all this doping crap... it's makes sports so cheap.

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LK was treated unfairly

thanks X

zippyjuan

Levels of testosterone do vary in a person but what they are looking at are the ratios of certain types. Normal in the ones they are looking at here would be 1:1 in the average person. They used to allow up to 6:1 to classify a test as failled but it was reduced to 4:1. We will need to wait until the second sample is tested, but his team has suspended him and if the second test (a retest of a second portion of the original sample) comes back positive, Phonak will fire him. Riders need to be very careful that any medications -whether that be for saddle sores or pain or whatever- do not contain any substances that may change that ratio. It may have been something inadvertent that caused the ratio or it could have been tampered with. Or he could be guilty. I hope it is not the latter. I did not want to believe Tyler Hamilton but he failed his test on two completely different occasions. We will have to wait and see what the results of the retest are.

clutchy

thanks for the explanation. doping... so lame...

zippyjuan

One of the TV reports I saw (don't remember which one) said his actual testosterone levels were low. It is the ratio that triggered the positive result.

nickel

yes, i heard something to that effect too. i'm still waiting to see/hear proof that he did in fact dope. they are testing his "B" sample now whatever that means, and the results are not in yet. i have also heard those in the know saying something is not adding up here.


side note: should cortisone shots be considered doping? football players do much better dealing with pain after being shot up with cortisone so isn't that an artifical aid for them?

Jeffbx

I was reading an article earlier today, sorry I don't remember the source.

Anyway, they say testing the 'B' sample just means they run the same test again on the same urine - it just verifies the test was run correctly.

I also read that he had a special exemption for the cortisone, so that should not be a factor.

zippyjuan

Landis was tested several times throughout the Tour and this is the only one that came back with a questionable result. Taking a steroid will not help you the day after you take it so there would have been no reason for Landis to take any during the race- espically given the dismissals of the other riders just before the start of the tour. This test gives a lot of false positives and there is a more accurate test which has not been administered to the sample so far. A rider does not have to give a "B" sample if they do not want to. The "A" sample and the "B" sample are collected at the same time and the rider seals (or witnesses the sealing) of the sample container and then signs or initials the seal to verify that the sample was not tampered with. If the "A" sample comes back with a questionable result, the rider can chose to attend the opening of the "B" sample and its testing but they are not usually present at the first test. There are major politics that go on in cycling and it may be that the lab (which is the one that kept making charges against Armstrong and leaking "results" to L'Epee paper (which is why the UCI took the unusual step of releasing the preliminary results before the second sample was tested) so it could have been lab error, a statistical abnormality with no real meaning or a tainted result. The "B" sample test will hopefully bring more conclusive results. Here is a good article about it: http://boulderreport.bicycling.com/2...e_specula.html

nickel

it's a wrap

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...073100867.html

zippyjuan

They are now reporting that the testosterone/ epitestosterone ratio was 11/1 which is a huge number. http://my.earthlink.net/article/top?...60801300516412 and as I said earlier, taking any testosterone during the race would not give him a one day boost in performance.

There are lot of strange things surrounding this which may sound like the sample was spiked or maybe someone slipped Floyd something. It is also odd that the level showed up that high when previous tests during the Tour did not show anything out of acceptable norms. The test for synthetic testosterone is pretty accurate since it looks at the structure of the molecules and not just levels. Results of the "B" sample should be availble by Saturday.

guiseppewv

How long does that stuff take to cycle out of the blood stream? If I were Floyd, and I knew I was innocent, I would have went in for another test as soon as they said their test was positive. And, yes, I know there is a "B" sample but I would want to have another test done with a lab that is obviously not as biased as the one currently doing the testing.

cheapie

that wouldn't work because they wouldn't allow it. mainly because you can do certain things to give you a boost just for the race. giving blood later would just show that he wasn't still doing it.

and honestly, i'm guessing he did dope. i'm really hoping i'm wrong but

zippyjuan

Second sample returned the same result as the first one. Landis contiunes to deny doing anything wrong and says he will fight it. His team, Phonak, has released him from his contract and he will be under suspension for two years which will give him plenty of time to recover from his hip replacement and trying to fight it. This is likely the end of his pro cycling career. Cycling has probably lost alot of its more casual fans for a while- between all the scandals surrounding this year's tour and the retirement of Lance Armstrong who is probably glad he decided not to go for one more. What a mess.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/othe...ng/5233476.stm

InfiniteNothing

The testosterone was synthetic But hey, if it can be concluded it gave him no benefit, no harm no foul right?

VTGreg

According to Landis, his testosterone levels were normal and his epitestosterone levels were very low. Not sure if this proves anything but it definitely doens't jive with the presence of synthetic testosterone in his blood.

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InfiniteNothing

Unless he's a cyborg and produces synthetic testosterone

zippyjuan

I don't know what to think at this point. As I said earlier, taking testosterone during the race does not help- its benefits are realized over time. He was tested several other times during the race without this result and the result was way out of normal- even for someone who did take a steroid. His total testosterone was below normal (it was the testosterone- epitestosterone ratio that was out of balance)- but taking steroids can depress the natural levels. His team. Phonak has had a history of getting caught using banned substances. Landis has so far not tried to question the test or claim that either his sample or his body was somehow spiked. In fact, he and his lawyer said they expected no different result from the second test. Granted. in the beginning he had (or appeared to) have no idea what was going on and was -along with everyone else- trying to come up with explinations for the test results. If he had knowingly used something, he could have come up with a pre- planned explination for what happend. Since his story changes, I tend to want to believe that he was surprised with the test. He may have been given something else (either knowingly or unknowingly) that effected his performance. A friend of mine who is a major rider (70 miles a day is an easy day for him) said they found a fault with his (Floyd's) riding position and adjusted his saddle height that day which made his riding more efficient. Either way, the process will take a long time now and also with his uncertain recovery from his hip replacement it would appear that his pro cycling career is over.