Landis falters, falls out of contention at Tour
American says he 'suffered from the beginning,' plummets to 11th place
 | Floyd Landis wipes his face after crossing the finish line to place 23rd in the 16th stage of the 93rd Tour de France on Wednesday. |
Bas Czerwinski / AP |
Tour de France |
July 5-27 |
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LA TOUSSUIRE, France - Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel saw early on that Floyd Landis was struggling.
Landis began Wednesday’s 16th stage of the Tour de France with a lead of 10 seconds — and ended it more than 8 minutes behind new leader Oscar Pereiro of Spain, with Sunday’s finish in Paris approaching fast.
“We know Floyd well, so you can see the body English,” seven-time Tour winner Armstrong said of his former teammate.
“Still, I didn’t want that to happen. I wanted the jersey to stay in America,” Armstrong told The Associated Press after the stage had finished. “Floyd was riding good, and now the guy that was 28 or 29 minutes down looks like he might win the Tour.”
Pereiro’s improbable rise has him on the brink of the first Tour win for a Spaniard since Miguel Indurain in 1995.
The absence of Armstrong, who retired last summer, and prerace favorites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso — both kicked off before the Tour started because of suspected doping — makes the 2006 Tour the most wide-open in years.
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It set the stage up perfectly for Landis who, after years of sweating for Armstrong, finally had a chance for his own win. However, that all but evaporated Wednesday in the unforgiving sun. His burning red face clashing with the custard yellow of his Tour leader’s jersey, Landis buckled on the Alps.
Barring an improbable scenario of mass crashes, the 11th-placed Landis will not be able to make up the 8:08 gap on Pereiro.
“It’s finished. He can’t win it any more,” said Bruyneel, Armstrong’s former team director.
As soon as Landis hit the Col du Galibier — the first of Wednesday’s three torturous climbs and the highest of the three-week race at 8,681 feet — Bruyneel saw signs of fatigue.
“It was pretty clear he was not having a good day,” Bruyneel said. “I could see straight away from the Galibier that he was not looking good.”
His legs betraying him, Landis tried to put on a brave face.
“I suffered from the beginning and I tried to hide it,” Landis said.
Bruyneel’s eye, however, pierced straight through the mass of whirling legs in the peloton and spotted Landis wilting even before the day’s second major climb up the Croix-de-Fer — midway through — and long before the uphill finish to La Toussuire.
“I know his style,” said Bruyneel.
Bruyneel, who guided Armstrong on each of his seven Tour wins, feels Landis could have won the Tour had he survived Wednesday’s 113-mile stage, which began at Bourg d’Oisans.
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“If he had stayed solid, he ultimately could have won it in the time trial (on Saturday),” Bruyneel said.
Mickael Rasmussen of Denmark won stage 16, clocking 5 hours, 36 minutes, 4 seconds. It was his second career Tour stage win, after a success last year, and propelled him into the polka-dot jersey. The award, given to the best climber, was won by Rasmussen last year as well.
In contrast to Landis, Rasmussen whizzed up and down the day’s four hills with the grace and ease of a surfer cruising waves.
Nearly 2 minutes behind, countrymen Carlos Sastre and Pereiro rolled over the line in second and third respectively. Despondent Landis chugged up the hill in 23rd place.
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“It was difficult to imagine that things would turn out like this,” Pereiro said. “Floyd Landis seemed untouchable, but like everybody, he wasn’t immune to collapse. I’m really sad for him.”
Overall, Pereiro holds a 1:50 lead over Sastre, and is 2:29 up on third-place Andreas Kloeden of Germany, who is close to another podium finish after placing runner-up to Armstrong in 2004.
Saturday’s time trial could benefit speedy Kloeden, providing he can shave time off Sastre and Pereiro on Thursday’s 17th stage, the last tough ascent in the Alps.
The route, a 124.3-mile trek from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Morzine, is less demanding than Wednesday’s stage, and also Tuesday’s trudge up to L’Alpe d’Huez.
However, the Tour is still up for grabs — and mystery still surrounds who will wear yellow on the Champs-Elysees on Sunday.
That was never the case in Armstrong’s era.
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