MÂCON, FRANCE -- After a leisurely ride yesterday, one of the most dramatic Tour de France editions in years reaches a crucial stage today -- the individual time trial.
The question on everyone's lips: Can American Floyd Landis overcome a 30-second disadvantage and wrest the yellow jersey from race leader Oscar Pereiro of Spain?
The two have traded the yellow jersey back and forth since last Saturday. Now, the time trial likely will determine who will wear the maillot jaune when it counts -- tomorrow in Paris.
"I feel pretty good about my chances," Landis said after yesterday's mostly flat stage, in which the leading contenders rode together, trying to recharge after three agonizing days in the Alps.
Today's race against the clock is a 57-kilometre ride that snakes from Le Creusot to Montceau-les-Mines. It shouldn't take the riders, who will leave one by one in reverse order of the standings, much more than an hour to complete.
The final three riders to go will be Landis, second-place Spaniard Carlos Sastre, who's 12 seconds behind, and Pereiro.
The course is about the same length as the seventh-stage time trial, though a little more hilly. Landis finished second in that stage, 1 minute 10 seconds faster than Sastre and 1:40 ahead of Pereiro. But extrapolations mean little in this year's Tour, which has featured seven riders in yellow -- one short of the record.
Wild unpredictable finishes are replacing Lance Armstrong's era of domination.
Whereas Armstrong meticulously chipped away at his rivals, 30-year-old Landis has shown a flair for drama -- nearly cracking one day, then coming back with a once-in-a-lifetime ride.
Landis became a fan favourite on Thursday, winning the final Alpine stage to slash his disadvantage of 8:08 to Pereiro down to 30 seconds, putting him back into contention.
Making it even more incredible is that Landis is riding with an arthritic hip, an injury from a 2003 crash that he hopes to correct with surgery in the fall.
"The other day, when I saw Floyd [struggle] . . . I can say in my heart that I wasn't happy," said Pereiro, a former Phonak teammate who calls Landis a friend. "Now I am."
"But it's clear that it's going to be harder for me to win the Tour," he said, acknowledging that Landis is typically stronger in time trials.
Yesterday, he and the other top riders took it easy as Matteo Tosatto of Italy won the 18th stage, outsprinting two other breakaway riders at the end of the 197-kilometre ride from Morzine to Mâcon.
The Quickstep rider clocked 4 hours 16 minutes 15 seconds. Pereiro, Landis and Sastre cruised in eight minutes later.
Pereiro, of the Illes Balears squad, holds a 12-second lead over Team CSC rider and fellow Spaniard Sastre. But the Spaniards aren't even their teams' biggest stars.
Ivan Basso of Italy, the Team CSC leader, was disqualified on the eve of the Tour, implicated in a Spanish doping investigation. The star of Pereiro's team, Alejandro Valverde, crashed out in the third stage with a broken right collarbone.
The doping probe -- and the absence of now-retired Armstrong -- have played havoc with fans' attempts to figure out the favourites for the title.
18th stage
Stage: The riders left the Alps in the 18th stage from Morzine to Mâcon, 197 kilometres in baking sunshine on a mainly flat route.
Winner: Italian Matteo Tosatto, of the Quick Step team, 4 hours 16 minutes 15 seconds. Cristian Moreni of Italy placed second in the same time, and Gerolsteiner rider Ronny Scholz of Germany was third.
Yellow jersey: Oscar Pereiro, a Spaniard on Illes Balears, retained the leader's jersey he took from Floyd Landis two days earlier. He leads Landis by 30 seconds.
Next stage: Today's 19th and penultimate stage is a 57-kilometre time trial from Le Creusot to Montceau-les-Mines.
Associated Press
