Landis: BONK! July 20, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Uncategorized, Weblog, Tour De France, Breaking News , add a commentThe Tour de France proved today it remains unpredictable and one of the world’s great sporting events. Today’s stage 16 — 120 miles with tortious mountain climbs — witnessed the agony and the ecstasy of high athletic drama. The agony was wrapped up in the bonk of Floyd Landis, who went into today wearing the maillot jaune. Landis bonked with 2.5 miles to go, falling out of the peloton and eventually finishing an astonishing 10:04 behind Rasmussen. This has now left our great American hope in 11th place in the GC, more than 8 minutes behind Oscar Pereiro, who regained the yellow jersey. I could not believe my eyes as I watched Landis just drift off — I kept yelling “Floyd — just finish strong and live for tomorrow!” — but somewhere along the way, he ran out of energy and with that, probably dashed his hope for the title
What can possibly happen after this? I am not sure how much my heart can take — we now have had eight different leaders in 16 stages. But I fear the Americans are off the podium….can Floyd make up 8:08? Can Levi Leipheimer finish strong on tomorrow’s stage and move up from 9th?…Hold onto your seats folks!
