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93rd Tour de France - presented by

Stage 18, Morzine - Mâcon, 193K

21 July

Dust Devil's Daily Wrap
Italian-Style

Dust Devil's Daily Wrap, Stage List, Stage Profile, Photos

Was there a stage today?

Sorry, I'm so focused on the TT tomorrow I can't think about the uneventful goings on of todays stage. I should be happy it's the first victory for the Italians (not counting half Italian Sylvain Calzati), for Matteo Tossato. His victory was like watching somebody steal candy from a baby after Ronny Scholz threw his chance for glory down the toilet with some not-so-intelligent riding.

After further thought, it's hard to believe that the favorites let Landis get so far yesterday before reacting. But, I guess it comes down to gambling. You can't chase everybody down, and nobody thought he'd have the legs to stay away.

Anyways. Tomorrow!

This is a good argument for scheduling the final TT for the final day, ending in Paris. Why not? Imagine the suspense of a race like this coming down to the final minutes of the final day in Paris (like it did in 1989). Didn't the Tour organizers learn anything from that Tour? It seemed pretty successful to me. I'd rather watch a TT arrive in Paris than everybody riding around with clown wigs on and drinking champagne. But, hey....I'm just a spectator.

I think if Floyd Landis has a mediocre time-trial he should still walk away with a comfortable victory margin. In the Rennes TT, Landis beat Sastre by 1:10 and Pereiro by 1:40. There are 18 seconds seperating him and Sastre and 30 between him and Pereiro. Of course, there are no formulas in sport, and particularly in this Tour de France. But, we all know who the superior time trialist is here. The Spanish duo will have to ride the TT of a lifetime to get anywhere near limiting losses, and Floyd will have to do a pretty good 2005 Michael Rasmussen impersonation to fail now.

The most impressive thing about Landis was how humble he was after his horrible Stage 16 fiasco. No excuses, no nothing. He said he just picked a bad day to have a bad day. None of this crap you hear other riders doing, blaming their breakaway partner for re-negging on their deal, or offering to buy the race from them, or my team wasn't working for me.....None of that. Just accepting that it wasn't his day. And the next day after delivering an absolute flogging of the entire peloton, single-handedly, there was no trash talking or chest beating. That's a true sportsmen there ladies and gentlemen. An example to us all.

- The Dust Devil