Landis looks to be Lance’s new Tour de France heir
American Floyd Landis has underlined his yellow jersey credentials, a resounding performance in the Tour de France’s 11th stage earning him the overall race lead. Landis, a former member of Lance Armstrong’s US Postal team, now leads France’s Cyril Dessel by eight seconds in the race’s general classification, ahead of tonight’s 12th stage which, fortunately for most, rides out of the mountains.
Russia’s Denis Menchov (Rabobank) took his first victory on the race after 206.5km of cycling between Tarbes and Pla De Veret, of which almost 62km was climbing into the mountains. Menchov, whose acceleration in the final 200 metres of a thrilling finish atop the misty summit of the Puerto de Beret climb gave him his first Tour stage win, is third overall.
Menchov, who took last year’s Tour of Spain after the winner, Roberto Heras, was disqualified for doping, won a three-man sprint at the summit finish ahead of American Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner) and Phonak team leader Landis. Landis took the race lead and his first yellow jersey from Dessel, who lost out by a matter of seconds.
The toughest of two stages in the Pyrenees, the day took its toll on a whole bunch of race favourites.
T-Mobile had dominated throughout the day but fell off the pace on the final climb after a turn of speed by Dutchman Michael Boogerd, a teammate of Menchov’s, proved too much for Andreas Kloden and Australia’s Michael Rogers. De-facto team leader Kloden, runner-up to Lance Armstrong in 2004, is now 2min 29sec off the lead while Rogers, who had fallen off the back of the leading group even earlier, is at 3min 22sec.
But the big disappointment of the day was in Armstrong’s former team. In the absence of Armstrong, the Discovery Channel boys seemed shadows of their former selves, at least four of them dropping off the back of the T-Mobile-led bunch as early as the first climb, the Col du Tourmalet.
Increasingly, it looks as though Landis, who only days ago announced he would undergo hip replacement surgery at the end of the season, could be the man to fill Armstrong’s shoes.
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Tour de France Tips: This year’s Tour will be a battle between Landis, Kloden and Leipheimer.
