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93rd Tour de France - presented by

Stage 19, Le Creusot - Montceau-les-Mines TT, 57K

22 July

Dust Devil's Daily Wrap
The Return of the Head Honcho

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

What a finale!

Floyd Landis takes yellow, albeit with a few surprises.

I didn't think Carlos Sastre would put in such a poor performance with so much on the line. It's a shame to see him lose his podium spot. Oscar Pereiro put in a much better performance than I thought he was capable of. I new that at the first time check when he was only a second down on Landis he was doing too much too soon and wouldn't be able to maintain his tempo. Landis is a very strong finisher in a TT, and he knows how to dose his efforts, as all top men against the watch do.

Serhiy Honchar put in another amazing ride. He snagged the best time fairly early on, with almost three and a half minutes between him and the next best time of Sebastian Lang, which held for quite awile, that's amazing.

Cadel Evans disappointed a bit. I thought he would turn in a better ride. I was very surprised to see him get caught by Klöden. That has to add insult to injury, especially when you're separated by three minutes.

The thing that crossed my mind a time or two while watching this stage was how important innovation is or can be to a sport. You see Landis with his unorthodox TT position. It's not very sightly, some say, but obviously very effective. While others tend to follow the status quo more. It reminded me back to when Lemond showed up with aero bars and an aero helmet and beat everybody in the first TT in the '89 Tour readily. Nobody learned from that, and then he came back and we all know what happened on the Champs Elysees that year! Why are some people so blind or resistent to change, even when it is obvious?

It's an interesting question.

~The Dust Devil