T-Mobile cyclist Serhiy Honchar won the individual time trial on Saturday, gaining the yellow jersey and beating all the top contenders who had planned to use the stage to catapult themselves into the Tour de France lead.
In fact, the only favorite who could afford a smile at the end of the day was American Floyd Landis (at left in Tour of California), who finished 2nd in the stage and boosted himself to 2nd in the overall standings.
It was not a great day for most of the other Americans racing in the 32-mile individual time trial from Saint Gregoire to Rennes, the 7th stage of the Tour. In fact, it was horrible.
Handlebar malfunction
Landis himself looked to be facing disaster early in the race when he suffered a mechanical failure with his handlebars; a quick change of bicycles with his team Phonak car behind him limited the damage.
According to some reports, race officials rejected his riding position and insisted that he lower his handlebars — 20 minutes before the start of the stage. (Interesting that he's been using that tuck all season, and the high sheriffs wait until the last minute to tell him to modify it.) Apparently the change caused his handlebars to come loose before the first time check, and Landis had to stop to make the bike change.
But when I say Landis is the only favorite who could smile at the end of the day, I'm speaking figuretively. Look where he'd be without losing 6 to 8 seconds at the beginning of the prologue due to a cut tire and the time it took him to change the bike today. He could be just 30 seconds behind the leader, instead of a full minute.
What's with Levi?
Levi Leipheimer, another of the American favorites in the Tour, was among the biggest losers on the day. The Gerolsteiner team leader lost time at every check point along the course, finishing an abysmal 96th place, more than 6 minutes behind the stage winner. He was placed 62nd overall at the end of the day.
Leipheimer finished 6th overall in the Tour last year, and won the Dauphiné Libéré just a couple of weeks ago in June, finishing in a strong 3rd in that race's individual time trial. Commentators across the board asked, “What's with Levi?”
Gerolsteiner team manager Hans-Michael Holczer said Leipheimer probably lost his chances for a podium finish. “That was a big blow. Why it didn't work out today, I can't say. In any case, it will be very hard to get that time back.”
Another big loser on the day was George Hincapie, who was sitting in 4th overall at the beginning of the day, and the highest placed Discovery rider. On a team that's still searching for a leader after the retirement of Lance Armstrong, Hincapie could have moved to the head of the class.
Hincapie finished 2 minutes and 42 seconds behind the day's winner in 24th place; teammates Paolo Salvodelli (19th) and Viatscheslav Ekimov (22nd) finished ahead of him. Hincapie was quoted at the end of the stage: “It wasn't too good…I felt good before but I don't know.”
David Zabriskie, touted by CSC team manager Bjarne Riis as the man to beat in the race, had a respectable finish in 13th place, but didn't set the course on fire. By finishing 1-minute 56 seconds behind the winner, he moved into 10th place overall.
Zabriskie's American teammate, Christian Vandevelde, finished 30th, passing Leipheimer, the rider who started two minutes ahead of him.
The third American on Team CSC, Bobby Julich, crashed in early in the time trial and was rushed to the hospital for observation.
Chris Horner, an American on Davitamon-Lotto, finished in 48th place on the stage.
This was quite a different day than the last time the four American favorites met in a time trial at the Dauphiné Libéré just a few weeks back in June. They swept the top four positions, with Zabriskie winning, followed by Landis, Leipheimer and Hincapie.
The Americans weren't the only ones upset, however. Honchar's strong finish upset the plans to two T-Mobile teammates — Michael Rogers and Andreas Kloden — who hoped to establish themselves as T-Mobile leaders are the departure of Jan Ullrich before the race. Rogers finished in 4th and Kloden 8th, neither commanding victories to take team leadership.
The time trial completely changed the General Classification leaders, marking the end of the first week dominated by sprinters. Look at T-Mobile with four cyclists in the top 10. And where's Discovery? The highest placed Discovery cyclist is Paolo Savoldelli in 13th place, 2 minutes and 10 seconds out of first.
The top 10 are:
1. Serhiy Gonchar (Ukr), T-Mobile
2. Floyd Landis (US), Phonak, 1:00 behind
3. Michael Rogers (Aus), T-Mobile, 1:08
4. Patrik Sinkewitz (Ger), T-Mobile, 1:45
5. Marcus Fothen (Ger), Gerolsteiner, 1:50
6. Andreas Kloden (Ger), T-Mobile, 1:50
7. Vladimir Karpets (Rus), Caisse d'Epargne, 1:52
8. Cadel Evans (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, 1:52
9. Denis Menchov (Rus), Rabobank, 2:00
10. David Zabriskie (US), Team CSC, 2:03
The positions of US racers are:
2. Floyd Landis (Phonak), 1:00 behind
10. David Zabriskie (Team CSC), 2:03
17 George Hincapie (Discovery), 2:30
22. Christian Vandevelde (Team CSC), 3:25
62. Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner), 6:17
126. Chris Horner (Davitamon-Lotto), 12:19
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