Gap, France – L’Alpe d’Huez, the Izoard and Galibier passes. Hard climbs, legendary climbs, climbs that decide the Tour de France.
One bad day, even one bad hour, on those punishing ascents in the Alps this week could end U.S. rider Floyd Landis’ bid for the Tour title. After two weeks of racing and little separating Landis from the other top riders, the Tour is perfectly poised for a thrilling finale.
Landis and the 155 other cyclists who have made it this far, surviving crashes, scorching heat and 1,664 miles of racing, have all of today to rest their aching muscles, patch up scrapes and sores and focus on the 607 miles that remain to the finish line in Paris next Sunday.
Tuesday’s legendary stage that ends at L’Alpe d’Huez brings the first of three make-or- break days in the Alps. And if those towering mountains don’t sift out a winner, the Tour could be decided in the last long time trial Saturday.
“Three big days in the Alps, one big time trial, anything can happen,” said Landis’ Dutch teammate, Koos Moerenhout.
After Sunday’s 14th stage, won by Frenchman Pierrick Fedrigo, Landis was still where he says he wants to be: second overall, 1 minute and 29 seconds behind Oscar Pereiro of Spain.
Landis figured that having the overall lead going into the rest day would have put too much pressure on his Phonak team. So he relinquished it to Pereiro a couple of days before, letting the Illes Balears rival ride ahead and take the lead on Saturday.
Landis is hoping that Illes Balears will try to keep Pereiro in the lead by racing up at the front of the pack – where cyclists expend the most energy – sparing the need for his Phonak teammates to do so. Landis wants to keep his team of support riders as fresh as possible so they can help him up the climbs in the Alps.
“We’d like to have some other teams with some motivation to ride, other than us,” the Pennsylvania native said Sunday.
Pereiro struggled in the Pyrenees last week and was slower than Landis in the first long time trial at the end of week one. So even if he works miracles and holds off Landis and the rest of the field in the Alps – which even Pereiro thinks is unlikely – Phonak is betting that he’ll succumb eventually in the final time trial.
Without the retired Lance Armstrong and top riders Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich – sent home on the eve of the Tour because of allegations they were linked to a doping ring in Spain – there is a sense that anything could still happen, even if Landis is the favorite.
“It’s a different race without a big leader,” Moerenhout said. “Everybody thinks, ‘Maybe we can win.”‘
