Did American cyclist Floyd Landis make a mistake by letting Oscar Pereiro take the yellow jersey?
Five-time Tour de France winner Bernard Hinault seems to think so, while others say giving the Phonak team a rest was a smart move. I guess we'll find out Tuesday when the peloton begins three days in the Alps on the way to its grand finish in Paris on Sunday.
Eurosport reports that Hinault told L'Equipe:
“Allowing (Yaroslav) Popovych and Pereiro back is like returning the wolf to the chicken pen! Just because Popovych lost time in the Pyrenees doesn't mean he will no longer perform in future stages.”
Hinault also criticized Landis' effort on the Pla de Beret, the mountaintop finish on the second day of the Pyrenees. “Landis looked on another planet on the ascent to Pla de Beret but he should have attacked and made more time.”
Hinault was referring to Phonak (Landis' team) allowing Discovery's Popovych to jump back up the standings on Friday and Pereiro to leapfrog from 46th to 1st on Saturday. Landis explained that allowing Pereiro into the overall lead gave Phonak a chance to rest up from its pace-setting duties for a couple of days before reaching the Alps. Landis told CyclingNews:
“You can never assume anything, but he was 30 minutes down before the stage today and there are still three hard mountain states to go. I think that no matter what happens next, we have to gamble a little bit because we can't ride all day, every day. So there it is, that is our gamble.”
Also, Pereiro rode with Phonak the past four years and the managers say they know what he's capable of. Tour de France observer and writer Dave Shields at Daily Peloton considered Phonak's decision “brilliant.”
Meanwhile, Pereiro told CyclingNews that he'll try to keep the overall lead, but he's realistic about his chances:
“There are still all these mountain stages ahead of us, as well as this very long time trial. It's not that they gave me ten minutes, either. I only have a little more than one minute on Landis, so I need to remain realistic. I will enjoy every day I wear this yellow jersey and I will try to defend it as long as possible. But I think that the day Floyd decides to get it, he will.”
Of course, Pereiro isn't Landis' only worry. There's also Rabobank's Denis Menchov, the Russian who won last year's Vuelta d'Espana after Roberto Heras was disqualified. Menchov sits just 1 minute behind Landis in the standings. Then there's Australian Cadel Evans of Davitamon-Lotto and German Andreas Kloden of T-Mobile, as well as a host of other possibilities. (VeloNews rates these TdF contenders, along with American Levi Leipheimer.)
If Landis or his Phonak team is going to show weakness, we'll all see it on Tuesday.
That's the day the Tour cranks it up with the 116-mile 15th Stage from Gap to l'Alpe d'Huez, the legendary mountaintop finish.
The stage begins with the beyond category Col d'Izoard, a nearly 9-mile climb at at average 7%. That's followed by the 7 1/2-mile Col du Lautaret, a 4.4% gradient. Finally the riders must pass through the crowds lining the way to l'Alpe d'Huez, an 8 1/2 mile climb at 7.9% gradient.
Who's going to protecting Landis? Here's his team:
Bert Grabsch, Germany
Robert Hunter, Russia
Nicolas Jalabert, France
M. Angel Martin Perdiguero, Spain
Axel Merckx, Belgium
Koos Moerenhout, The Netherlands
Alexandre Moos, Switzerland
Victor Hugo Pena, Colombia
For those of you watching at home, Tour coverage begins at 7 a.m. (ET) on OLN.
Recent Comments