Tour De France: Americans at the Front
Charles Johnson
Thu Jul 13, 2006 at 9:04 pm PDT • Views: 184
A terrific race on a day full of super-difficult climbing ends with American Floyd Landis in the leader’s yellow jersey: Landis in yellow after Menchov wins epic mountain stage.
And Levi Leipheimer was second on the stage.
Floyd Landis and Levi Leipheimer found the best way to save what could have been a disastrous day for American cycling in the Tour de France Thursday . Phonak team leader Landis took the yellow leader’s jersey, while Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner) finished second to Russia’s Denis Menchov (Rabobank) at the end of this Tour’s most grueling and decisive stage yet.
Landis began the day in third overall but stage 11 from Tarbes to Val d’Aran (Pla-de-Beret) in Spain saw the peloton split so decisively that just three men remained in the lead group that conquered the brutal 206.5km stage featuring five torturous mountain climbs.
Ze French, zey are disconsolate.
Frank says: