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July 22, 2006
Honchar takes ITT, Landis takes the Tour
I'm hesitant to predict anything in this unpredictable Tour, but Floyd Landis will win the 2006 Tour de France.
Ukraine's Sergei Honchar took his 2nd time trial stage win of the Tour, ahead of teammate Andreas Klöden, while overnight 2nd-place rider Carlos Sastre couldn't hang, and dropped to 4th overall.
Overnight yellow jersey Oscar Pereiro did the fleece proud, finishing 4th on the day, ahead of scads of time-trial specialists, to keep 2nd place, only 59 seconds behind Landis, and 30 seconds ahead of Klöden.
But the big story was Landis, who rode his own race, setting the fastest time at the first time check and taking 3rd on the day. He'll be the 3rd American to win the Tour, following 3 by Greg Lemond, and the last 7 by Lance Armstrong.
Damiano Cunego solidified his hold on the white jersey, now 36 seconds ahead of Gerolsteiner's Marcus Fothen, with a 10th-place finish on the day.
T-Mobile, with the top 2 finishers and world time trial champion Michael Rogers in 19th, moves 17:20 ahead of CSC in the team competition, which they'll most likely win for the 3rd straight year.
Top 10:
1) Sergei Honchar, T-Mobile, Ukraine, in 1:07:45
2) Andreas Klödën, T-Mobile, Germany, at :41
3) Floyd Landis, Phonak, USA, at 1:11
4) Oscar Pereiro, Caisse d'Epargne, at 2:40
5) Sebastian Lang, Gerolsteiner, Germany, at 3:18
6) David Zabriskie, CSC, USA, at 3:35
7) Viatcheslav Ekimov, Discovery Channel, Russia, at 3:41
8) Cadel Evans, Davitamon-Lotto, Australia, at 3:41
9) Bert Grabsch, Phonak, Germany, at 3:43
10) Damiano Cunego, Lampre, Italy, at 3:44
Full results
Overall:
1) Floyd Landis, Phonak, USA, in 85:42:30
2) Oscar Pereiro, Caisse d'Epargne, Spain, at :59
3) Andreas Klöden, T-Mobile, Germany, at 1:29
4) Carlos Sastre, CSC, Spain, at 3:13
5) Cadel Evans, Davitamon-Lotto, at 5:08
6) Denis Menchov, Rabobank, Russia, at 7:06
7) Cyril Dessel, AG2R, France, at 8:41
8) Christophe Moreau, AG2R, France, at 9:37
9) Haimar Zubeldia, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Spain, at 12:05
10) Michael Rogers, T-Mobile, Australia, at 15:07
Overall standings
Posted by Frank Steele on July 22, 2006 in Andreas Klöden, Carlos Sastre, Damiano Cunego, Dave Zabriskie, Floyd Landis, Michael Rogers, Oscar Pereiro, Sergei Honchar, Stage results, Top Stories, Tour de France 2006, Viatcheslav Ekimov | Permalink
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Comments
The Euros thought the pain and loss ended with Armstrongs exit...think again! 11 out of the last 20 tours have been won by Americans...sign of things to come? Bad Hip,Cancer gunshot wounds...you can't hold us back babeee USA!! Floyd is King!!
Posted by: tyler durden at Jul 22, 2006 1:19:03 PM
Wow, Honchar! He spanked everyone twice. Did anyone expect that?
Cunego rocks the house for Best Young Rider, against expectations (and I was wishing him the win on Alpe d'Huez, but Schleck was just stronger).
Poor Sastre - rides himself right off the podium. And Kloden (finally) comes to life and rides himself on.
And T-Mobile "goes ape-shit" and pulls a Phonak tomorrow and destroys the peloton early, Honchar leading out Kloden for the win and the yellow jersey (and T-Mob gets the Team win, too!).
Of course, that's highly unlikely but wouldn't it be spectacular?
Floyd looks great in yellow and his ride on Thursday was unforgettable. Today, he did what was necessary (and rejoined the ranks of "mere mortals" - all that talk about "riding a conservative race" and such nonsense).
Posted by: Rex at Jul 22, 2006 3:04:55 PM
Italians at Football (soccer).
Americans at Cycling.
What are the French good at........
Posted by: bbirdy at Jul 22, 2006 4:04:39 PM
bbirdy - Uh...putting on the world's greatest bike race?
Honestly, I'll never understand this hostility against "the French." Get mad at specific people who've done specific things, but why lump the whole country together?
Posted by: Julie at Jul 22, 2006 8:23:43 PM
Rex - nah, Mazzoleni would pace Floyd back up to Kloden. ;-P
Posted by: Julie at Jul 22, 2006 8:31:55 PM
We make fun of the French because it's fun to do. It's why Bob Roll says "Tour DAY France." And along with our language and our system of law, Franco-bashing is part of our Anglo heritage -- the British do it, so Americans have to do it too.
Seriously, Paris is a lovely city. Just don't make the mistake of speaking the language -- you go through all that effort and they still treat you like a low-life who doesn't correctly speak the language. If they're going to treat you like an idiot American, you might as well have some fun with it and act like one.
Posted by: Fritz at Jul 23, 2006 2:14:38 AM
Frenching-bashing (or merely French-poking-le-fun-at) seems definitely a part of the Anglo-Saxon heritage. Like most forms of amusement, it's OK unless taken too far - kind of like gallic national chauvinism in that respect.
Most americans older than roughly 40 probably imbibed their Gallo-Funnia (whether wittingly or not) by way of that famous Looney Tunes cartoon character, Pepe LePew, the persistently amorous, perfectly pompadoured Parisian pimpernel of stench.
The skunk part was a reference to Americans' popular perception - probably reinforced by way of soldiers returning from WWI in Europe - of French personal hygiene (or lack thereof). Another funny thing about Pepe that most people don't seem to know is that his accent, manner of speaking and even some of his pet phrases ("Come wees me to zee Casbah...") are taken from the classic 1930s film "Algiers," starring Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr, in which Boyer plays a French con named Pepe le Moko, who is on the lam from French justice by way of the old Casbah section of Algiers (Algeria was a French colony back in those days), and who winds up being undone by his falling hopelessly in love with a lovely French tourist, played by Lamarr.
Alas, these particular cartoons from the Looney Tunes series appear to increasingly be a victim of political correctness - I mean c'mon, sexual harassment is not cool, but neither is throwing folks off of tall cliffs, bwasting them with wawge bwundewbusses, or dropping large anvils on their heads. ;)
Posted by: ewmayer at Jul 24, 2006 4:25:51 PM
