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Landis tops in Tour de Georgia TT
There were two definite declarations to be made following the third stage of the Dodge Tour de Georgia in Rome on Thursday. First, if it wasn’t already, American Floyd Landis made it clear that with or without the services of the now-suspended Tyler Hamilton, the future of the Phonak team is in solid hands as it heads into the important months of the 2005 season.
Landis made this point by taking an emphatic win in a rain and wind-swept 18.6-mile time trial on the rolling streets around Rome. The former mountain-bike racer and U.S. Postal Service pro was the only rider among 119 starters to stop the clock in less than 40 minutes. His mark of 39:58:09 was 19 seconds better than CSC’s David Zabriskie, with fellow American Chris Baldwin (Navigators) in third, at 0:22.
Conspicuously missing from that threesome was one Lance Armstrong who came to Georgia as the defending champion, but after finishing a distant ninth in the TT at 1:46, now finds himself staring at a long uphill climb if he hopes to defend his title. And that brings up the second point: If Armstrong’s quest for a seventh Tour de France title were to start tomorrow, clearly he would not be ready.
“I’m disappointed,” admitted Armstrong, who won the Tour de Georgia time trial a year ago on this same course, but was never a factor this time around. “I didn’t feel great but I thought I’d do a better ride. I’m disappointed and it shows I have some work to do.”
While Armstrong goes back to work, Landis and his Phonak squad will now be charged with defending the leader’s jersey here in Georgia, as the six-day event heads into the mountains for the first time on Friday. The 133.4-mile stage 4 run from Dalton to Dahlonega includes five rated climbs (three 2s, and two 3s), and that’s followed by the tour’s hardest day, the trip up Brasstown Bald Mountain, the lone hors categorie climb in the race. Landis is atop the GC, 19 seconds in front of Zabriskie.
“Today couldn’t have gone better,” said Landis. “But the difficult part of the race will be tomorrow and Saturday. It will be hard to control because there’s mountains, and teams like Discovery have quite a few climbers. I’m certain their tactic will be to attack and have guys go up the road knowing that we won’t be able to control the whole thing. I expect them to try to narrow the field down so that those of us have an advantage already have a hard time keeping it.”
Landis and his Phonak squad will be short a man come the climbing stages. Spaniard Jose Gutierrez was a DNS on Thursday, reportedly the victim of a knee problem.
Racing in Rome on Thursday kicked off at 11 a.m. and it wasn’t long before the rains came. It never reached torrential downpour stage, but the on-and-off showers made for tough and tricky conditions, especially on the descent of Mount Alto, the short, but steep 1.4-mile climb that began 11.1 miles into the race. Several riders crashed, and third-place finisher Baldwin said he barely staved off a tumble of his own.
“It was pretty sketchy,” said Baldwin. “But I think all those top dog guys were taking it conservatively because it’s two months before the Tour. I think everyone was in the same boat. I don’t think anyone lost or gained time because they were crazy in the corners. I was very conservative. And even being conservative I almost lost the front wheel, so then I slowed down even more. The two corners at the bottom of the climb were very slick.”
Landis wasn’t quite as concerned about the conditions, but admitted he only put out his full A-game after his midway split revealed he had a chance for a stage win.
“It wasn’t too dangerous regardless of the conditions,” the Phonak rider said. “My idea was to see how the first half went and if I had a chance to win, then I’d take some risks in the downhill. If I wasn’t doing so well I certainly wouldn’t have taken any risks.”
Armstrong wasn’t the only big loser on the day. Cesar Grajales (Navigators), winner of last year’s Brasstown Bald stage, crashed and had a mechanical problem. That left the Colombian 59th, at 5:37, meaning his shot at the GC overall is all but done.
Other notable rides included top 10s for CSC’s Bobby Julich (4th, at 0:28), Aussie Nathan O’Neill (5th, at 0:43) and Gerolsteiner’s Levi Leipheimer (6th at 0:50). All told Americans made up 7 of the top 10, which is also the case in the current GC.
While Armstrong and his Discovery team were clearly not happy about how the day went, they still have four riders in the top 11 (Armstrong, Tom Danielson, Viatcheslav Ekimov and Jose Azevedo), leaving them plenty of cards to play.
“We’re definitely not going to sit back and watch,” said team director Johan Bruyneel. “Tomorrow and the day after are two hard stages, and I think we can still try to do something. We’re going to be aggressive.”Full Results are posted
RACE NOTES
More from Lance
Just like most other days, Armstrong did not address the media directly following the time trial stage in Rome. But speaking through Discovery personnel he painted a picture of much work to be done before he begins his quest for Tour de France win No. 7 come July.
“Sometimes it’s nice to get a benchmark, whether it’s a good one or a bad one,” said Armstrong, after placing ninth in stage 3’s TT. “Clearly I didn’t set a very good one today.”
Armstrong also conceded that his overall fitness isn’t where it was a year ago when he had a clear run to the Tour de Georgia overall title.
“I’m probably behind on fitness,” he said. “Last year I definitely got a jump on fitness, and this year I was way behind. I thought I caught up, but like I said, now I know I haven’t and it’s time to reevaluate the season. We’ve got about two and a half months [until the Tour de France]. We just have to improve from here. It means getting fitness and losing weight, focusing on every little aspect of the sport: the diet, the bike, the training, the team. I think they are even a little bit behind, so we’ve got work to do.”
Discovery director Bruyneel had a similar post-race assessment, sharing his star rider’s disappointment.
“I had expected a little better from us, from Lance, from Tom,” he said, addressing Danielson’s seventh-place finish in Georgia, 1:00 behind Landis. “I do think something to consider with Lance is that it’s his first time trial this year… but today was definitely not a great ride from him and you can definitely see he didn’t have it. There’s a lot of work to do.” This and that
The Discovery Channel team was docked 200 Swiss francs after its car failed to take the required deviation before the finish line.
The team manager from LPR – Omar Piscina – was also fined 200 Swiss francs for failing to respect the 10-meter distance between another rider and the car he was driving. The gaffe also cost LPR’s Daniele Masolino 20 seconds in penalty time.
Race officials did away with the time cut on Thursday “due to unforeseen weather conditions.”Full Results are posted
Thoughts and Observations
David Zabriskie, on the TT course
“When I rode it this morning, my jaw dropped. Woke up at seven wentout and did it, and I held on to the car up the hill because it was just insane. But it wasn’t that bad in the race. It wasn’t as long as I remembered. That was definitely one of the fastest, hardest courses I’ve ever done.”
Chris Baldwin on the day's results
“I really wanted to have a good result for this stage, because thenif something does go wrong for the GC I still have a stage result. I’mthrilled, and that takes the pressure off me in the GC. My boss might notagree with that, but in my eyes, it relives some of the pressure.”
CSC team director Scott Sunderland on the rest of the tour
“I think Phonak is pretty strong, so they should be able to defendthe jersey in the mountains. If we have bad weather conditions tomorrow,that’s going to change a few things…”Full Results are posted
Exercise physiologist Allen Limon today's efforts
“Anything under 40 minutes would be averaging 400 watts, consideringgood aerodynamics, and all things being equal. The rain today probablymade it a little faster, because the humidity in the air actually makesthe air less dense. It’s fast air today, despite the fact that the roadsare slick.”Best Young Rider leader’s Trent Lowe (Jittery Joe’s-Kalahari)
The 2002 junior world cross-country champion is off to an outstanding 2005 season off road when not riding with his Subaru-Gary Fisher mountain-bike team. The 20-year-old Aussie has already won the prestigious Oak Glen climbing stage at the Redlands Classic earlier this season, where he finished second overall, just seven seconds behind winner Chris Wherry (Health Net-Maxxis).With his 23rd-place finish in the time trial, 3:02 behind Landis, Lowe has taken over the best young rider’s jersey in Georgia, a title teams like TIAA-CREF and the U.S. under-23 national team would dearly love. Interestingly, Lowe and fellow NORBA star Geoff Kabush, ranked 29th in the TT, are Jittery Joe’s top-placed riders, ahead of Jonny Sundt, 53rd, and team leader Tim Johnson, who finished 60th, 4:42 down.Asked if preserving the jersey will become a priority for Jittery Joe’s, Lowe said, “I’ll talk to Tim Johnson and Micah Rice, my director, but it’s definitely something I’ll want to chase. It’s not like I came into today expecting that I wanted the jersey, so it’s really a novelty to have it. It keeps fresh motivation to defend it. I want to try.”Lowe’s closest competitors for the jersey are CSC’s Andy Schleck, at 23 seconds, and Gerolsteiner’s Matthias Russ, at 29 seconds. The closest American in the running is Credit Agricole’s Saul Raisin, who sits fourth in the contest, 31 seconds behind Lowe.Jerseys
Dodge Leader's Jersey: Floyd Landis (Phonak)
Maxxis Sprint Leader's Jersey: Greg Henderson (Health Net-Maxxis)
Georgia Power KOM Leader's Jersey: Andrea Tafi (Saunier Duval-Prodir)
GE Best Young Rider Leader's Jersey: Trent Lowe (Jittery Joe’s-Kalahari)
Results
1. Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak, 39:58
2. David Zabriskie (USA) Team CSC, at 19sec
3. Christopher Baldwin (USA) Navigators Insurance, at 22sec
4. Bobby Julich (USA) Team CSC, at 28
5. Nathan O'Neill (AUS) Navigators Insurance, at 43
6. Levi Leipheimer (USA) Gerolsteiner, at 50
7. Tom Danielson (USA) Discovery, at 1:00
8. Viatcheslav Ekimov (RUS) Discovery, at 1:21
9. Lance Armstrong (USA) Discovery, at 1:46
10. Brian Vandborg (DEN) Team CSC, at 1:47
Overall standings
1. Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak, 11:14:19
2. David Zabriskie (USA) Team CSC, at 19sec
3. Christopher Baldwin (USA) Navigators Insurance, at 22sec
4. Bobby Julich (USA) Team CSC, at 28sec
5. Nathan O'Neill (AUS) Navigators Insurance, at 43sec
6. Levi Leipheimer (USA) Gerolsteiner, at 50sec
7. Tom Danielson (USA) Discovery, at 1:00
8. Viatcheslav Ekimov (RUS) Discovery, at 1:21
9. Lance Armstrong (USA) Discovery, at 1:42
10. Brian Vandborg (DEN) Team CSC, at 1:47
Full Results are posted
