Floyd Landis re-becomes the fifth American ever to wear the Yellow Jersey today... although not having scanned all the comments yet, I wonder if he'd rather give Oscar Pereiro back the ten seconds for one last day of freedom. Anyway, there is a long way to go and anything can happen, but unless it does, we're looking at the next Tour de France champion.
From my little blind spot in the mountains, it sounds as if Floyd is playing a very careful game, very well. It takes a great deal of patience for a rider on the cusp of yellow to manage his efforts, but from initial accounts it sounds like he burned fewer matches today than his main competitors (who meanwhile were struggling to get his wheel). There are two more impossibly hard days left in the Alps, plus a time trial Saturday. Leaving it all on Alpe d'Huez in a dramatic attack sounds like a fan's dream, but not a Directeur Sportif's.
- Race reports: try the usual recommendations from here, namely Pez or Cycling Revealed. Additional breakdown from the Paceline.
- Plenty of post-race reactions: There's Landis, and Schleck, and my own fave the Klodi diary.
More, always more...
- Pez flips the page and previews tomorrow's stroll up to La Toussuire.
- The Podium Cafe curse strikes again... Cadel Evans: no mas!
- Lance has less trouble forecasting a winner. Of course, if I waited 15 stages, I probably would've figured it out too.
- Speaking of curses, the exit of the rainbow follows the PCT white kit hanging in Valverde's closet. The Tour doesn't need more jerseys, thank you very much.