Remains in third place entering tomorrow's time trial
Best climber Michael Rasmussen of Denmark, foreground center, talks with Floyd Landis of the U.S., rear center, as the pack pedals near Valleiry, French Alps, during the 18th stage of the 93rd Tour de France cycling race between Morzine, French Alps, and Macon, central France, Friday.
By Bernard Harris
Updated Feb 19, 2007 15:40
Landis, a Farmersville native, and the other top riders in the Tour de France rode conservatively today in preparation for Saturday’s decisive time trial.
Landis, 30, is expected to win Saturday’s time trial and take the overall lead in the 23-day, 2,160-mile race. A decisive victory will put him at the top of the winners’ podium in Paris on Sunday.
Landis would be the third American to win bicycling’s most prestigious — and grueling — race.
After winning Thursday’s mountain stage — a performance being called one of the greatest in the Tour’s 100-year history — Landis finished comfortably in the pack today.
He crossed the line in 29th place, remaining 30 seconds behind the race leader, Spaniard Oscar Pereiro, and 12 seconds behind second-place rider Carlos Sastre, also of Spain.
Italian Matteo Tosatto won today’s stage, with the race leaders trailing eight minutes behind.
During last week’s individual time trial, in which the riders are started at staggered times and race against the clock, Landis beat Pereiro by one minute 40 seconds and Sastre by one minute 10 seconds.
“Floyd should be able to have a good time trial — not even an exceptional time trial — and he should be in yellow,” said Landis’ friend and mentor Mike Farrington this morning, referring to the yellow jersey worn by the race leader.
“If he has an exceptional time trial — look out — he should win with authority.”
And Farrington, owner of Ephrata’s Green Mountain Cyclery bike shop, where a teenage Landis used to hang out, believes Landis will be looking for a decisive win on Saturday.
“It would not surprise me if he comes across the line and beats everybody by two or three minutes,” he said of Landis, a time-trial specialist.
Lancaster County residents will be able to follow Landis and stage 19 of the race on the Outdoor Life Network, or OLN. Live coverage runs from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday. It will be rebroadcast throughout the day.
For Comcast Lancaster customers, OLN is channel 60. For Comcast Lancaster Elizabethtown-Columbia customers it is 64. For Blue Ridge Cable customers is it channel 68.
Today’s stage, Farrington said, is “a nothing day.” The top riders were simply playing it safe, saving their energy and watching each other to ensure that one of them does not attempt a serious break to gain time.
Rich Ruoff, president of local race organizer RedRoseRaces.com, agreed.
“All the key contenders will be saving themselves for tomorrow,” Ruoff said this morning.
And Ruoff believes Landis will make a strong showing Saturday.
“Floyd is going to win. Not only is he going to win the Tour de France, he is going to win the stage,” he said of the time-trail race.
“I think without a doubt, he is the strongest,” Ruoff said.
Yesterday’s ride, agreed Ruoff, Farrington and commentators and bicyclists around the world, was a performance for the ages.
Landis started Wednesday’s race eight minutes back in the standings, having lost steam in the final climb to the day’s fourth Alpine peak. He dropped from first to 11th place in the overall standings as other riders passed him and the clock kept ticking.
On Thursday, Landis rebounded with an awe-inspiring ride. He attacked from the base of the first mountain, catching and joining a group of 11 other riders in the front. He kept a furious pace, eventually dropping off all those riders and continuing alone for most of the 122-mile stage.
He finished more than seven minutes and 30 seconds ahead of the overall race leaders. The gambit put him in third place and back into contention for the overall win.
“It was absolutely astounding,” Farrington said of Landis’ performance.
“No matter what happens the rest of this Tour — no matter what happens in the rest of his life — he’ll go down in history as having the single greatest one-day stage in the history of the Tour de France, and that’s not me saying that — it was Bernard Hinault,” Farrington said of comments he had read from the former Tour winner.
Ruoff said Landis’ ride Thursday was historic, but particularly after he “bonked” the day before.
“If you have ever bonked on a bicycle, you never want to get back on,” said Ruoff.
That Landis did that one day, and then rode as he did the next, was what most impressed Ruoff.
“That was one of the greatest acts of courage I have ever seen anywhere — let alone on a bicycle,” said Ruoff.
Farrington believes Landis is now the stuff of cycling legend.
“Lance Armstrong — in all the amazing things he has done — he never did this,” he said of Landis climbing the mountains alone.
And, Farrington said, Landis told the other riders what he planned to do at the day’s start.
“It’s like Babe Ruth calling his home runs. He told them he was going to do it,” said Farrington.
Farrington is planning a Tour de France party on Saturday to watch the time trial and, he hopes, a Landis victory.
The event will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Green Mountain Cyclery, 285 S. Reading Road, Ephrata.
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