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Landis back in title hunt
20/07/2006 18:51 - (SA)
Morzine, France - American rider Floyd Landis moved back into contention for the Tour de France title on Thursday, winning the last tough Alpine stage in a solo finish to gain minutes on his top rivals.
Landis, who lost the leader's yellow jersey on Wednesday after struggling at the uphill finish, burst ahead of the main pack in the first of three tough ascents in the 17th stage.
The stage win was his first at the Tour in five appearances.
"He reacted like a great champion," said France's Cyril Dessel, who fell from fourth to seventh place overall.
It came a day after Landis withered in an uphill finish and lost the race leader's yellow jersey to Spain's Oscar Pereiro in the hardest of three Alpine stages.
"I was very, very disappointed yesterday for a little while," Landis said. "Today, I thought I could show that at least I would keep fighting. I wasn't giving up just yet."
Landis went into Thursday's stage in 11th place, trailing Pereiro by 8 minutes, 8 seconds.Afterward, he jumped to third - 30 seconds back of Pereiro. Fellow Spaniard Carlos Sastre is second, 12 seconds behind.
Landis pumped his right fist in celebration as he crossed the finish and hopped off his bike after completing the 200.5km (124.3-mile) ride in 5 hours, 23 minutes, 36 seconds.
He said he had anticipated that his main rivals might be tired after two punishing days of climbs in the Alps, and praised his Phonak teammates for their hard work to help him along.
Deserved to be the leader
"No matter what, whether I win or lose, I wanted to prove to my team that I deserved to be the leader," he said. "I didn't expect it to work quite that well."
Sastre finished second, 5:42 behind. France's Christophe Moreau was third, 5:58 back, and Pereiro was seventh, trailing Landis by 7:08.
Riders set off from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne and covered three hard climbs - one of them so hard that it defies classification in cycling's ranking system - before the speedy descent into Morzine.
Landis trimmed an extra 30 seconds from his deficit to Pereiro by earning bonus points for winning the stage and placing well in sprints along the course route.
The Pennsylvania native first jumped out in front of his major rivals at the 72km (45-mile) mark along the first tough climb up the Col des Saisies.
"He is just showing that he's a real soldier," said Bernard Hinault, a Frenchman who won the Tour five times, during the stage. "I'm a big fan of Floyd today ... He's got an aggressive streak."
With the tough Alpine climbs over, the individual time trial this weekend shapes up as a crucial test to decide the winner of the first Tour since Lance Armstrong won a record seven straight titles.
Saturday's race against the clock, a 57km (35.4-mile) course that snakes from Le Creusot to Montceau-les-Mines, is similar in length to the first time trial in Stage 7 and only a little more hilly.
In that one, Landis placed second overall, and was 1:10 faster than Sastre and 1:40 ahead of Pereiro.
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