US cyclist Floyd Landis held onto his slim 9 second overall lead in the Paris-Nice bike race on Saturday.
If he and his teammmates on the Swiss Phonak team can hang on for one more day, he'll become the second American to win The Race to the Sun.
The bicycle race was first run in 1933 and has been held annually since 1951. Bobby Julich, riding for Team CSC became the first American to win the race just last year.
Landis, fresh off winning the inaugural 8-stage Tour of California last month (pictured above in his aero time trial position), is on pace to win this week-long spring classic. Although several breakaways pushed the pace during the day, Landis and his Phonak team controlled the leaders so none of his challengers finished ahead of him.
Andrey Kashechkin of Kazakhstan won Saturday's 111-mile stage by 1-minute 6-seconds; Landis finished 1:33 behind in the peloton.
Sunday's final stage is an 84-mile loop around Nice featuring three category 1 climbs. Landis has been isolated by his teammates on the mountains before, but the “world's fastest Mennonite” was able to keep his challengers in check by himself. He might be called upon to do that again in the final stage.
Don't forget that OLNTV is televising Paris-Nice at 5 p.m. (ET) on Sunday.
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