The inevitable has happened and Floyd Landis took back yellow in today's penultimate stage, a 57 km individual time trial. Mind you, it didn't look inevitable just three days ago and I think this Tour will go down in history as one of the great ones. Landis' ride to Morzine was the stuff of legend.
Despite losing yellow today, Pereiro still put up a game struggle, finishing fourth on the stage, and Kloden did what he had to do by finishing second on the stage behind Honchar -- it just wasn't enough to hold the American off.
So, all the classifications look locked going into tomorrow's final stage to the Champs Elysees: Landis has to crash or something to lose yellow; ditto for Cunego in white; it's mathematically impossible for McEwen and Rasmussen to lose their jerseys (unless they abandon); and T-Mobile have the team ranking wrapped up, too.
Speaking of inevitable, we finally have a new leader in the pool. Peter Metuzals, who led the pool from day one, has surrendered his lead to Chris Holzauer, and Julie Deschenes-Furry (who won yet another stage today) and Paul Crowley sit two and three points behind the Gentle Giant, respectively. It's all gone askew for Helena DeVeer, too, who now sits in ninth overall. 51 points still cover the top 16 entries, though, so a lot may come down to tomorrow's romp to the finish and - who knows - maybe the guess of the number of finishers will come into play as a tie breaker.
Robbie Hunter missed the time cut in the time trial today, bringing us down to 140 riders, a number picked by Luise Sander, Linda Gilligan, Sheri Jay and Boyz on Bikes. Paul Scafel and Tyler Lawlor will be hoping for another abandon to bring it to 139, and there are still 32 entries that guessed fewer than 140, though none so pessimistic as Jennifer Garrett with 98.
Enjoy the final stage, there's more action to come!
-- KW
Date: 22-Jul Stage: 19 Start/Finish: C.L.M. Ind. - Le Creusot > Montceau-les-Mines Distance 57,0 1st HONCHAR Serhiy UKR TMO 2nd KLÖDEN Andréas GER TMO 3rd LANDIS Floyd USA PHO 4th PEREIRO SIO Oscar ESP CEI 5th LANG Sebastian GER GST 6th ZABRISKIE David USA CSC 7th EKIMOV Viatceslav RUS DSC 8th EVANS Cadel AUS DVL 9th GRABSCH Bert GER PHO 10th CUNEGO Damiano ITA LAM Young rider CUNEGO Damiano ITA LAM Aggressive Teams T-MOBILE TEAM Abandon HUNTER Robert RSA PHO Overall: Yellow LANDIS Floyd USA PHO Team T-MOBILE TEAM Green MC EWEN Robbie AUS DVL Polka dots RASMUSSEN Mickael DEN RAB Young rider CUNEGO Damiano ITA LAM
RANK TOT Stage rank Stage points 1 590 7 38 Chris Holzauer 2 581 47 22 Peter Metuzals 3 579 1 43 Julie Deschenes-Furry 4 578 12 34 Paul Crowley "Team Blood Wash" 5 571 18 32 Meylina Kandoy 6 562 4 40 Grimpeur George 7 561 6 39 Vicki Thomas 8 560 22 30 Linda Gilligan 9 559 47 22 Helena DeVeer 10 558 2 42 Nat Faulkner 11 556 22 30 Tyler Lawlor 12 553 18 32 Markus Chiang 13 552 54 20 Stefan Sander 14 546 33 27 Glenn "My Team is Clean" Robinson 15 543 33 27 Jamie Bryan 16 539 30 29 Ian Dalling 17 536 12 34 "Mr. Stevens Picks" 18 534 33 27 Orange Scheisse 19 526 22 30 Alex Lai 20 520 10 35 Team D.O.P.E.- Downplaying Operation Puerto Evidence 21 518 18 32 Derrick St. John 21 518 40 25 Rob Grondin 23 510 8 37 "Barnet CC" 24 502 22 30 Marc Boudreau 25 499 8 37 Gordon Dalling 26 498 33 27 Blaine Penny 27 496 30 29 Craig Hawkes "Sith Riders" 28 494 22 30 Jeffrey Furry 29 482 4 40 SUPERFAN 29 482 22 30 Matt Toulouse 29 482 33 27 Sean O'Donnell "The Ruse is Up" 32 481 63 15 Steve Proulx 33 478 47 22 Spencer Campbell "Texless" 34 473 12 34 Eva Ortega "VillaEva" 35 471 69 13 Chris & Storm 36 470 12 34 Courtnay Romkey 37 459 12 34 Ross Knight 38 456 33 27 Paul Scafel "Team Venga Venga Venga" 38 456 63 15 Mhairi Gilmore 40 449 47 22 Kevin Field "Fev" 41 437 40 25 Doug Hinan 42 432 63 15 Sandy Fulton 43 427 10 35 Richard and Catherine 43 427 72 8 John Fee / Cynthia Phelan 45 420 72 8 Natasha Elliott 46 407 22 30 Josh Hall 47 398 40 25 Julie Jay 48 397 39 26 Team Damdom 49 396 61 17 The Cyclery 50 393 61 17 Kris "Can't win" Westwood 51 387 12 34 J to the U 52 376 63 15 Lori Meyers 52 376 69 13 Neil la Plante 54 367 47 22 Team Oro Rocks 55 357 54 20 Musky Ninja 56 351 44 24 Deb Hine's Most Excellent Picks 57 349 2 42 Shawn Clarke 58 348 63 15 Ed Makarchuk 59 343 22 30 Jay "Son of Rudy" Heins 60 340 54 20 Yellow Dopes "Grubby Rabbit" 61 331 30 29 Jennifer Garrett 62 329 54 20 Mike Larochelle 63 311 47 22 Chris White 64 308 72 8 "Dick und Doof" 65 306 80 5 Wilby McKnight 66 304 40 25 Rob Kerr 67 292 47 22 Reed Archer 68 289 80 5 Kiwi Mike 69 287 60 18 Adrian Das 70 274 18 32 Dave Shirley 71 262 72 8 Team 18 Wheeler 72 249 71 9 Donelli 73 248 54 20 Les Boyz 74 245 44 24 Kate Scallion 75 237 84 0 Team Boyz on Bikes 76 231 80 5 Sheri Jay 77 229 84 0 Dave Thomas 78 204 84 0 Larginski 79 197 83 3 "Team Wheelywotten" 80 175 72 8 Operation Spain 81 159 72 8 Los Spics 82 154 54 20 Team OK 83 141 63 15 Mr. Glen 84 138 44 24 Il Gatto 85 117 72 8 Remi "Team MTB + Frenchies" Berube 86 104 72 8 Luise Sander "No Euros Here" 87 -3 84 0 Phil Brun del Re "The Lucky Lucky Nine"Posted by kriswestwood at July 22, 2006 03:28 PM