Finally, by the 11th stage we see a stage with some big implications for the final GC (after the first time-trial, that is). Nice to see Leipheimer with a good performance too- about time really, since he hasn't been doing too well until today.

Seems like Team Discovery has been relegated to the status of also-rans. I'm already looking forward to Stage 15 and the finish at L'Alpe d'Huez. I'd be mildly surprised if Phonak is strong enough to keep Landis in Yellow, but its fun to see another American in the mellow johnny.

7/13/2006 7:05:57 PM

we have a search function on The Wolf Web

7/13/2006 7:06:50 PM

and it works almost half the time!

7/13/2006 7:43:58 PM

AH you should have started this a while ago....but it doesnt get good til stage 10 anyways

7/13/2006 8:13:57 PM

woo hoo

7/13/2006 8:16:16 PM

At the end of every race, the guy in the red(Bob) and all his fucking hand movements get on my nerves.....

7/14/2006 9:09:16 PM

i dont care about the tour de france because lance armstrong is not in it

7/14/2006 9:12:53 PM

an american is winning, the french people are pissed...this would be 8 usa wins in a row

7/14/2006 9:14:13 PM

well to be fair...everyone knows the usa is the best country in the world anyways

7/14/2006 9:20:29 PM

Looks like Phonak wasn't strong enough- somewhat disapointing. Maybe that'll give his team a break though. Sounds like they alienated the rest of the tour though.

Anyone else reading Julich's diary on ESPN? Ihttp://sports.espn.go.com/oly/tdf2006/news/story?id=2520455

7/15/2006 10:31:20 PM

Wasn't strong enough? They didn't chase on purpose.

7/15/2006 11:00:51 PM

Well, it looks like the American streak is over, since Landis is now 11th, and Leipheimer is 9th. I bet everyone in contention are kicking themselves for letting Pereiro get back into the race.

7/19/2006 2:20:07 PM

A disappointing tour for the Americans; I imagine all the Europeans are happy to escape the dominance of the stars & stripes.

Compared to TMobile and CSC, it really seemed like Phonak was lacking the support that could have helped Landis; then again he just cracked today, and perhaps nothing would have helped him.

I wonder if OLN is concerned that they might lose lots of viewers now that nobody stateside has a chance in the GC. I love the coverage however; Does OLN cover any other bike races? Could be fun to watch the scenery on the California tour.

7/19/2006 4:20:56 PM

Turn on the Tour now!!!

Landis is on a mission to take back the yellow today, or at least get himself in a position where he could reclaim it in the TT tomorrow. As of 76km to go, Landis has bridged the gap and is leading a 3 person breakaway with 5:30 over the main group with the yellow jersey. He started 8:08 behind yellow today. If the break can stay away and add another minute or so, landis maybe could take it back tomorrow in the TT

http://live.cyclingnews.com/?id=latest

7/20/2006 9:07:22 AM

GO HIP GO!!!!

7/20/2006 10:03:17 AM

Fuck you people, this is a great stage!

7/20/2006 10:34:16 AM

Landis pulls to within 31 seconds of the yellow. It's gonna be a crazy 2 days coming up

7/20/2006 11:22:38 AM

damn, this shit is crazy.

to give a brief recap of the last week.....

Landis took the yellow in stage 11 in the Pyrenéese, the 2nd mountain stage of the race. At that point there were several GC contenders within a couple minutes, includeing Menchov at 1:01, Sastre at 1:52, Klöden at 2:29. Importantly, though, Oscar Pereiro lost over 26min on that stage and was 28:31 back in the overall GC. Due to this result in this stage, it was a good assumption that Pereiro was not going to be a major threat for the rest of the race, since he bombed so hard on only the 2nd mountain day.

Stage 12 in the foothills not much happened. Landis stayed in yellow, Pererio now 28:50 back.

It got weird in the long (143 miles), relatively flat stage 13. Early on there was a breakaway of supposed "non GC contenders", with pererio the highest in the overall standings. As such, the peleton let the gap grow to unprecedented levels, to over 28 minutes after 121 miles. In the end, the leaders finished 29:57 ahead of Landis in yellow, so Pererio took the lead by 1:30. It could be said that Phonak let the break go on purpose and let someone else take Yellow so they wouldn't have to defend for the first day or two in the Alps, under the bold assumption that Pererio wouldn't be able to hold it, and would eventually fall off again like he did in the Pyrenéese. Whatever the reason, it looks like it was one of the worst tactical decisions in Tour de France history.

Stage 14 was boring and nothing changed, leading into the Alps, with Landis sitting, supposedly comfortably, in 2nd 1:30 behind Pererio.

Stage 15 going into the Alps had 2 killer climbs ending on L'Alpe-d'Huez. Michael Rasmussen made an incredible breakaway 3 miles into the race and rode the remaining 113 miles by himself, to win at the end. I assume Phonak was thinking Pererio would get shelled, and Landis would ride to a strong finish. Instead, Pererio had the ride of his life, finishing in 3rd, and Landis cracked hard with just 13km to go, finishing 10min back from the lead, and over 8 back from pererio, putting him back at 11th overall with the final GC contenders appearing to be Pererio, Sastre and Kloden.

Which brings us to today - it would be virtually unthinkable that after yesterday's performance, Landis had any chance of putting time into Pererio. First, considering how bad he was yesterday, you might assume his reserves are spent. Second, if by chance he did get off the front, there's no way Pererio or T-Mobile would actually let him go. But the tactical blunder by Phonak that put Pererio in the lead to begin with was all but reversed by a marvelous ride by Landis today, bridging the gap solo to a small group of leaders in mid-race. Then systematically dropping each of the others in his group one by one till he was in the lead by himself over the whole last climb. Sastra saw the danger and tried to chase, but was still 5:42 behind Landis at the end. Pererio did what he could, but his group finished 7:10 behind landis.
To that 7:10, add 30 seconds of time bonuses that Landis picked up along the way (10 from 2 sprint points and 20 for the stage win), and Landis shaved 7:38 out of Pererio's original 8:08 lead in a single day!!

Tomorrow's stage 18 is relatively flat, so it's unlikely any of the top 3 will be able to make any breakaways or gain any significant time over each other.
Which should leave it up to Saturday's 35 mile individual time trial. Landis is a beast on the TT, but hopefully 30 seconds is still in his reach.

.... awesome. I'm sure they'll let us know on OLN (if they havne't yet), but i really doubt anyone has ever come back from 30 minutes down to be a real GC threat. Then, the original GC threat dropping 10 minutes, then making almost the entire time up the next day!

7/20/2006 11:57:15 AM

Unbelievable! One day after pundits had totally written Landis off (I did too, I'll admit), he comes roaring back. I was really impressed with Pereiro however- holding onto the yellow through yesterday and today's tough stages. With the taste of yellow and a possible tour victory in his grasp, I think he will ride tough on Saturday.

Landis does look to be the best time-trial rider- It looks like Landis bested Sastre and Pereiro by at least a minute on Stage 7's time trial. Regardless, Saturday will be great!

7/20/2006 12:20:05 PM

gg landis, i didn't even pay attention today after hearing he was so far back. I would love to see the french whine like babies if he wins. you know they'll blast him w/ doping allegations if he ends up winning.

7/20/2006 1:03:33 PM

wow, look at Pererio's quotes
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/breakingnews/feedstory/0,,-5964247,00.html

Quote :

" "What he has achieved is incredible and he has the Tour de France in his hands," Pereiro told reporters. "He is the new favourite and normally, he should win the Tour. The time trial will be very hard for me.""

7/20/2006 2:57:00 PM

Well, obviously, if anyone read, I thought Landis was done. When I woke up and saw what was going on, I was amazed. I'm also surprised that Pereiro held on to Yellow today, due to the way Sastre has been going the last couple days. I can't wait for Saturday. Tomorrow will probably be uneventful, so Saturday is the day to watch. I worry about 1 thing with Landis (besides the hip). He seems to have had a few problems with his bikes in the Tour. Even in the last time trial, he had a bike issue. I worry that another issue may be one that could cost him the seconds he needs to win.

7/20/2006 4:01:09 PM

I'll def. be watching now.

7/20/2006 4:02:30 PM

^^ Good point about the bikes- he had trouble during the time trial, and evidently had a broken spoke during today's race (which led to a bike change that took about 10 seconds). Hopefully those troubles/bad luck are behind him.

Looking back Landis finished the Stage 7 time trial 1:10 faster than Sastre and 1:40 ahead of Pereiro. Should be a tight one on Saturday. With all the doping allegations going on right before the tour, the organizers must be happy to see how entertaining a race it has turned out to be absent the favorites.

7/20/2006 5:59:19 PM

Is today's stage over yet?

7/21/2006 10:12:44 AM

Stage 18 is over; no big changes to the GC. Stage 19 awaits.

7/21/2006 11:29:44 AM

COME ON FLOYD!!!

7/22/2006 10:45:18 AM

Pereiro comes in at the second split about 57 seconds behind Landis- looks like the battle might be for the rest of the podium now.

[Edited on July 22, 2006 at 11:01 AM. Reason : .]

7/22/2006 10:59:03 AM

the americans keep the tour. now im sure the french will say landis is on the juice, cry me a river!

[Edited on July 22, 2006 at 11:41 AM. Reason : ]

7/22/2006 11:41:01 AM

so who's winning?

does it look like an American is gonna win?

7/22/2006 11:49:30 AM

Uh, yes.

7/22/2006 11:54:51 AM

maybe it would be nice if you could learn his name instead of gloating simply because he's an American. Say it slowly now .... "F L O Y D L A N D I S"

7/22/2006 5:19:55 PM

Congratulations to Landis.

He'll never get the acclaim of LeMond or Armstrong over here, but his victory should rank right up there with LeMond's dramatic come-from-behind win and Armstrongs 1999 win after coming back from cancer.

7/22/2006 5:40:50 PM

guess what. no one cares about the tour de france anymore.

7/22/2006 5:47:53 PM

Wrong.

7/22/2006 7:27:29 PM

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/07/21/business/tour.php

Tour de France takes a hard spill on TV

7/22/2006 8:12:41 PM

The TV ratings decline in America was pretty obvious- what I am mildly surprised about is the decline in say, France. I wouldn't expect the same number of people who watched Lance cruise to his seventh would be as interested in a bunch of names they don't recognize- the article itself gives the example of the drop-off in golf when Tiger is out. Heroes bring in people otherwise uninterested in the sport, and when the heroes go, so do those spectators.

In the long run however, it is nice to see the exposure the Tour has gotten on OLN- watching the weekly coverage back in the day on ABC Sports was painful. The Tour on OLN is pretty entertaining, in my opinion credit to OLN's broadcasting team.

7/23/2006 12:17:05 AM

the only people who know that OLN exists are hockey fans.

7/23/2006 10:28:24 AM

I watched Wanted: Ted or Alive quite a few times.

7/23/2006 1:22:24 PM