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21 July 2006

22 July News ...

Peña Speaks Experience

Victor Hugo Peña (Phonak) has seen a lot in his years of professional racing, and Wednesday's downfall of teammate Floyd Landis was one of those movements. One day Landis seemingly had the race in his hands and the next (up La Toussuire) he lost a chunk of time that will be almost impossible to replace.

"I have done a lot of Grand Tours and these things happen," explained the Colombian before the start of stage 17. [Editor's note: Stage 17 made a huge change in the GC.] "Landis had the lead but, just other riders in races before, his legs did not have the strength."

Was it a somber mode at the team hotel last night? "Well, yes. But again these things happen in cycling... The race can change from day to day. We came here to work behind a dedicated leader, and we did a good job."

In hindsight, what is your opinion on giving away the yellow jersey to Pereiro in stage 13? "It is hard to say. You can say it was smart because we were confident that Pereiro would not be a threat, and given our objective is the final overall then it was not necessary to have the yellow jersey at that point."

Peña, along with the rest of the Phonak team, are happy with what they accomplished. The stage to La Toussuire showed the team management that their team could be slightly stronger and that Landis lacked an extra gear.

Roadside Chat with Gianetti

BiciRace.com met with Team Manager of Saunier Duval-Prodir, Mauro Gianetti, roadside, 10 kilometers into Thursday's Tour de France stage 17. It was a strange place to chat with the former winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Amstel Gold Race; standing at an exit, next to an autostrada... Certainly not as glamorous as the mountains to come later in the stage.

On Gianetti's mind was the general classification shake-up resulting from stage 16 to La Toussuire. Landis was knocked-out of the yellow jersey, proving the race to be very unpredictable.

"Who would have ever had guessed this would happen," said Gianetti. "It has been a very exciting Tour."

Gianetti explained that he hoped his young charge, David De La Fuente, would ride back into the mountains jersey, after losing the commanding lead to Michael Rasmussen in stage 16.

"David rode well, even if he does not re-take the mountain jersey," finished the Italian.

White Damiano Cunego

Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Fondital) closed the epic Tour de France stage 17 in fourth, behind stage winner Floyd Landis, and now sits 14th on the overall general classification. More importantly, Il Veronese succeeded in distancing Markus Fothen (Gerolsteiner), now leading the German by five seconds in the under-25 classification.

"It will be difficult to keep the white jersey all the way to Paris because Markus Fothen is a lot faster than me in the time trial but I'll do my best to end the Tour well," said Cunego when interviewed after the stage.

The little Italian rider now holds onto the Tour's White Jersey for best young (under-25) rider; his first classification jersey to wear in the Tour de France.

"It's really an important objective. Whatever happens, this Tour has been a good race for me. I'll look back on it with plenty of satisfaction but it was a shame that I couldn't win the stage to L'Alpe d'Huez. ... I'm still young and all this will be useful experience for the future years."

Landis Succeeded where Pantani Failed

Floyd Landis (Phonak) did what Pantani failed to do six years ago, go on the attack over the five categorized climbs leading to Morzine. In 2000, on an almost identical parcours, Marco Pantani made a desperate bid to shake the death-grip of Lance Armstrong, succumbing with the start of the final climb of Col de Joux-Plane.

No-Fuss Floyd Landis did what no one thought was possible and proved the race has change dramatically sine the days of Armstrong. In stage 17, Landis made the same solo ride as Pantani, only the American was able to stay clear and win the stage; moving oh-so close to the overall lead.

"I didn't spend too much time thinking during today's stage," said Landis in a post-stage Tour de France interview. "The plan right at the beginning was to do what we did. After that, all I could do was hope that, behind me, they were disorganized or not strong enough to catch me. I didn't have a whole lot of information, only the time differences every now and then ... I was pretty sure that they were working as hard as they could and that I was going to be okay."

The American made the day that much more special due to the fact that he was shelled the day before. Stage 16 to La Toussuire was disastrous for No-Fuss Floyd; losing so much time on the final climb that he slipped from 1st to 11th on the GC. ...BiciRace.com said at the time that Landis' chances of an overall victory were finished.

"Yesterday [stage 16] had nothing to do with pressure, I felt bad from the beginning," continued Landis after stage 17. "Stage 16 was not a day that you wanted to feel bad; there was no point on the course that you had any time to recover. It was a disaster. It may not have looked as though I was trying but it was as hard as I could go. I'd like to say that I was just trying to make the race exciting but that was all I had."

Floyd Landis now sits third on the GC, 30" behind Maillot Jaune Pereiro and 18" behind Sastre. Landis has the engine to crono both of the Spaniards into the ground in Saturday's 57K test, but this is a three-week race and anything can happen. Once again, as before stage 16, No-Fuss is BiciRace.com's pick to win the final overall.

"It wouldn't be any fun if I told you what was going to happen next. What I hope happens is obvious, I'd like to win the race. The only decisive day left is the time trial and I'm fairly confident in my time trialing ability – assuming I didn't overdo it today, and there's a chance of that... but we'll have to wait and see."

93rd Tour de France - presented by , 1 - 23 July
Main, Startlist, Classifications, Tour Favorites, Team CSC versus T-Mobile
Stages and Maps, Key Stages, Overall Map
Photos, The Dust Devil's Daily Wrap
Simoni and Saunier Duval-Prodir Updates
2005 Results

20 July News ...