Le Tour 2006: Remarkable Ride to Morzine
And I thought that his chances were finished, but Floyd Landis rides a phenomenal 17th stage to claw back into contention for the maillot jaune. He now sits third just 30 seconds back of the leader and with only the individual time trial left, he has a good chance of extending the American streak at Le Tour to 8 straight years.
He broke the contenders backs very early in the stage upon the first climb of the day. His team set a steady, but quick, pace up the Col des Saisies from which he launched his attack. The peleton let him have it thinking that he couldn’t ride at speed all the way to the finish. Yet, at each successive mountain, he would retake time back from the leaders until finally the fabled Col de Jeux Plane awaited where he rode the lone remaining cyclist off his wheel and into legend.
Now the tour takes a breather out of the mountains and a transitional stage awaits for them tomorrow. Can everyone get there legs back in time for the final time trial? I can’t wait.
The tour has been spectacular. It probably hasn’t been this good since the 80s. No more Lance Armstrong and his bossing of the peleton or Big Mig taking time in the time trials to sit and wait to win. This year’s been great to watch and hard to predict because there seems to be no one strong enough to win it except for Landis. I feel that since there is no one dominant team or dominant cyclist that the peleton doesn’t know what to do. It has been great.
Allez Floyd! Allez!
One Reply to “Le Tour 2006: Remarkable Ride to Morzine”
Comments are closed.
It really has been weird. You’re right about the peleton. Shit all the riders are confused.
I was reading an article about how a spanish rider was pissed at team CSC for not helping run down breakaway riders better.
The confusion is making le tour very interesting