News-Record.com

I've already seen how Stage 11 ends and I'm not holding my comments until the rest of you saps suffer through Rolle and Trautwig this evening.

Folks, it was Disco Demolition day in the Pyrenees. Remember how I liste d three possible contenders from the Discovery team yesterday? Scratch all of them. The only guy who showed any spark in the mountains was Jose Azevedo. But he still finished 4 minutes behind the leaders and is just 18th overall.

Of course, he looked like Bernard freaking Hinault compared to his teammates. Most disappointing was big George Hincapie, who finished over 21 minutes behind the stage winner, Denis Menchov. George, I'm revoking your status as an honorary Sandlapper.

Speaking of Menchov, I'm glad I at least saved partial face by throwing in his name at the very bottom of my list of contenders. Perhaps if I had consulted my trustee Yahoo profile and realized the guy won the Tour of Spain previously, I might not have been so blase about him. Now? I think he's got definite podium potential. Heck, he might be the biggest threat to the race leader. Who is ...

(building drama)

Floyd Landis! Yep, as we head into Bastille Day, yet another American is leading the Tour de France! The French haven't been this distraught over a sporting event disaster since, well, since earlier this week.
Floyd looked smooth throughout the stage, which was unreal in its difficulty (one beyond category climb followed by four cat 1 climbs. Who designed this stage, the Marquis de Sade?). Granted, wide time swings can happen in the mountains - just ask Hincapie - and the Alps are still out there, but Floyd's got the best combo of time-trialing skill and climbing prowess out there. I'll echo the sentiments of fellow N&R staffer Charlie Stafford, who thinks that Floyd will win and be joined on the podium by Menchov and Cadel Evans (hey, maybe Phil and Paul DO know what they're talking about!)

What does that mean? Not much at this point. But hey, what's a blog without reckless predictions?

For example, I completely wrote off Levi Leipheimer yesterday, and he stuck it back in my face by almost winning today's stage. Thanks to his disappearance from the earlier time trial, he's still not going to win this tour - unless he goes Pantani on us in the Alps - but he's back to respectability, jumping from the 50's to No. 13 overall, 5:39 behind Landis.

One final note, a sad and cynical one. As Rabobank rider Michael Boogerd was pacing his guy Menchov up the mountains, Paul and Phil were gushing about how well Boogerd was riding and how unexpected his impressive performance was. All of which naturally had me wondering whether Boogerd's doping.

That's not a personal attack on Boogerd - although he is from the Netherlands, a country with a long, infamous history for better performance through chemistry. It's just a sad commentary on the state of cycling right now, where every achievement is now greeted with a good deal of skepticism.