Win the time trial and Landis will be Tour de France’s new King
In cycling, the time trial is known as the race of truth, where each rider goes by himself as fast as he can, with only the clock as an opponent.
On Saturday, all eyes will be on the clock as Floyd Landis and the other contenders in the Tour de France battle it out in a 35.4-mile sprint that winds through the wine country of southern Burgundy from Le Creusot to Montceau-les-Mines.
Landis spent much of the last week predicting that the three-week race would come down to the final 
time trial. Because the final stage, a 95-mile ride that finishes with eight laps on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, is largely ceremonial up until the final circuits, the rider in first place after the time trial is likely to win the Tour de France.
Landis and the other contenders finished the stage eight minutes behind the winner, Matteo Tosatto, an Italian rider for the Quick Step team, who beat Cristian Moreni, an Italian with Cofidis, in a final sprint. They and one other rider had broken away from a small group that led the race for the last 92 miles.
Landis now sits in third place, 18 seconds behind Carlos Sastre of CSC, and 30 seconds behind the race leader, Oscar Pereiro of Caisse d’Épargne. In the Tour’s seventh stage, a slightly shorter and flatter time trial, Landis beat the two Spaniards by more than a minute.
Three other contenders - Andreas Klöden of T-Mobile, Denis Menchov of Rabobank and Cadel Evans of Davitamon-Lotto - were closer to Landis in the first time trial, finishing less than a minute behind him. But all three are currently two to three minutes behind Landis in the overall standings, meaning they would have to beat him by a wide margin to take over the lead in the Tour.
In short, Landis is in the driver’s seat, with an inside track to become only the third American, behind Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong, to win the Tour de France.
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Tour de France Tips: Bet on Landis to win the time trial en route to winning the 2006 Tour de France.
