CYCLING/Tour de France: Two weeks ago the French sports daily paper L'Equipe ran the banner headline "La Grande Lessive" - the great clean-out - following the expulsion of the four riders expected to dominate the Tour. Yesterday saw an equally impressive "big washday" as over the final two Pyrenean passes in this massive stage the number of potential winners was slashed from a baker's dozen to a handful, with Floyd Landis taking over the yellow jersey he so ably helped Lance Armstrong win in 2004.
The Mennonite mountain biker from Farmersville, Pennsylvania has the speed to have finished second to Serhiy Gontchar in Saturday's time-trial in Rennes but while yesterday's stage relegated the Ukrainian to 55th overall the American proved he can climb as well, finishing in the same time as the stage winner Denis Menchov.
The Russian winner is one of four men who remain in a position to challenge Landis: the others within two minutes 30 seconds are the Australian Cadel Evans, like Landis a former mountain bike racer, the Spaniard Carlos Sastre of the CSC team and, admittedly a little further down the standings, Germany's Andreas Kloden.
Armstrong is now part of Tour history but his influence remains. Landis was one of his domestiques at US Postal from 2002 to 2004 and here again, as so often in the Armstrong Tours, the first summit finish of the race may well prove decisive. The gnomic, ginger-goateed Landis may next year return to the Discovery team - part-owned by Armstrong - although that will presumably depend on his relationship with Armstrong, which has often been rocky, and also on the outcome of his forthcoming hip operation.
The knowledge that his cycling days may be numbered has, he says, given him extra determination "to force as hard as possible" this year. "You see things differently and I am honoured to be here," he said, with a grace that recalled America's first Tour great, Greg LeMond.
More sombrely, Landis added that "I hope the new (hip) will work". If it does not, of course, his career may well end this winter. There is, too, the chance that the condition afflicting the joint, avascular necrosis or osteo necrosis, may affect him in the coming days. "It is a possibility, but ordinarily with this condition it's a slow process, not a catastrophic failure in one day," he explained.
Talking of catastophic failure, yesterday was, rather intriguingly, a rout for the Discovery Channel men who backed Armstrong to his seventh win last year in such dominant style. Yaroslav Popovych, tipped as a future Tour winner, lost six minutes, while only the Portuguese Jose Azevedo remained in the top 20 overall. The much fancied George Hincapie, nicknamed Grimpeur (Climber) George after his stage win in the Pyrenees last year, finished 21 minutes behind Landis and Menchov, not that far ahead of the two Britons, Bradley Wiggins and David Millar.
The T-Mobile challenge faded as well, after the lower slopes of the day's penultimate climb, the Col du Portillon, where the German team suddenly broke the stalemate that has gripped the race since Strasbourg. It was the Valkenberg stage winner Matthias Kessler who did the damage, virtually sprinting up the lower slopes of the mountain that divides France and Spain, whittling down the lead group.
It proved a miscalculation by the Germans: their leader Kloden was unable to hold the pace when Menchov made his move four miles from the top of the climb to the finish. His Rabobank team tackled the ascent in the style of Armstrong's men, first Michael Rasmussen lifting the pace, then Michael Boogerd, before the Russian delivered the coup de grace.
Only Sastre, Landis, Evans and Kloden could hold the Russian, along with another American, Levi Leipheimer, the biggest loser last Saturday. He did his damnedest to secure the stage win but Menchov had the legs and the wit to take the lead going into the final corner.
The man who started the day in yellow, France's Cyril Dessel, looked as if he might retain the jersey until T-Mobile lifted the pace on the Portillon and thereafter strove as manfully as would be expected of anyone defending the maillot jaune in the kind of cliff-hanging finish that so delights French television commentators.
In the end, cruelly, he finished in a time which actually would have placed him at parity with Landis, but the American's third place on the stage entitled him to an eight-second time bonus which made the difference.
Today's stage is flat enough and there are enough time bonuses at the intermediate sprints for Dessel to regain the lead, something that would suit Landis as it would let his team-mates save their strength for the Alps. It would certainly be a storming result for France: today is Bastille Day.
Guardian Service
