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July 20, 2006

Floyd Attacks!

Turned on OLN this morning and WOW! Landis jumped off the front and is attacking like an angry, angry man today.

Seems that Chris Carmichael's words from yesterday have come true:

Relieved of the pressure of carrying the yellow jersey, and perhaps even the expectation of being a podium contender, Floyd Landis might well be reborn tomorrow during Stage 17. He's still a strong rider who has shown himself capable of climbing away from everyone in this year's race. Given a night to eat, drink, rest, and reflect, he can recover from today's bad day and have a great ride to Morzine tomorrow.

At this very moment Landis is snapping the pedals over and climbing to and past that 8:08 deficit he amassed in yesterday's stage!

The Yellow Jersey group of Pereiro and the main rivals are not gaining ground as Floyd prepares to descend and then climb Côte de Châtillon and the killer: Col de Joux-Plane. They cannot seem to rally to reel Floyd in.

Just heard on OLN a quote Landis told Bernard Hinault:

"I was bad yesterday, I'm going to be great today and prove it to you all..."
— Floyd Landis

Will Landis pull this off? I think he could! I'm certainly rooting for him and am incredibly inspired by his attack.

Be careful of that rebellious former Mennonite boy...

WOW!

What an inspirational, incredible ride by Floyd Landis!

"I came here to win the tour. That's what I still want to do, and I'm not done fighting yet."

"I told everybody last night that if somebody wants to win this race they're going to have to earn it."

— Floyd Landis

Floyd nearly destroys his 8:08 deficit, now sitting in 3rd position only 30 seconds behind Pereiro! Amazing. It seems nobody else thought Floyd could pull this off, but I sense he has that killer instinct of the greats. He wants not only this stage but the win in Paris and I believe he can do it.

Wow.

The time trial is not to be missed fans of the Tour... it's going to come down to the time trial.

GO FLOYD GO!

Photo: Eurosport

July 20, 2006 8:33 AM | Cycling | add to del.icio.us

Comments

Time Trial baby!

I can't wait to see how the time trial turns out. I think this will be Floyd's turn to makeup the remainding lost time.

Posted by: Dave Gregory at July 20, 2006 12:13 PM

Did you catch the earlier part when Phonak was ripping the legs off the peloton? Great stuff that many reports seem to have failed to mention. They had the peloton strung out approaching the first climb and riders popping off the back from their pace.

I sat amazed as I watched it. It was unbelievable as it seemed that there was no way the team would be able to recover from their efforts to stay with the main group. In the end they didn't have to!

What a great tour...

Posted by: Mike Papageorge at July 21, 2006 5:31 AM

Mike, I started seeing notes about the Phonak attack on Daily Peleton -- I'd missed earlier coverage. now I will need to check on getting a copy of stage 17 somewhere to watch the whole thing unfold. Amazing!

Posted by: Mike Rohde at July 26, 2006 3:25 PM