Pedal to the mettle

MORZINE, France -- Rumors spread quickly in the Tour de France peloton, not all of them plausible. Yesterday morning's gossip seemed especially outrageous.

Word had it that Floyd Landis and his Phonak team would attack hard, early and often, in the final mountain stage of the Tour in a desperate move to try to regain some of the eight minutes he'd lost in a mortifying collapse the previous day.

A few riders approached Landis. It's hot, they said. We're tired. The race is almost over. Please don't.

His response? ``Go drink some Coke because we're leaving on the first climb if you want to come along," Landis said.

He had a mischievous glint in his eye when he related the story to reporters a couple of hours later, the look of a punk kid who had made good on a ridiculous dare. That's precisely what Landis did, turning the Tour inside out with a solo demolition of the peloton almost unheard of in recent editions of the race.

When it was over, Landis had won the grueling stage and hauled himself out of the abyss he tumbled into Wednesday. He is now a scant 30 seconds behind leader Oscar Pereiro and, stunningly, back where he'd planned to be all along: in position to win the race in tomorrow's time trial, an event in which he is stronger than his closest rivals.

After Phonak singed the peloton with a high-paced ride at the foot of the first of four major climbs, Landis launched a solo chase of an early breakaway group. He eventually caught everyone in front of him, working alone or with pesky T-Mobile rider Patrik Sinkewitz deliberately sitting on his wheel in an attempt to slow his forward progress.

Landis distanced the peloton by nine minutes, putting him into the ``virtual" yellow jersey. The pack finally started chasing in earnest but could make little headway. Landis threw an emphatic jab in the air as he crossed the finish line.

Team CSC leader Carlos Sastre of Spain mounted a last-ditch effort to recoup some time and finished in second place, 5 minutes 42 seconds after Landis. Sastre is 18 seconds ahead of Landis in the overall standings. The only other rider within two minutes of him is Germany's Andreas Kloden. Australian Cadel Evans is 2:38 behind Landis and Russian Denis Menchov trails by another 1:06.

``After yesterday I didn't have a choice," Landis said. ``I took a long shot, but after all those hard mountain stages, you can usually assume that people are tired and chasing doesn't work so well."

Landis's bold move -- a complete departure from the crafty, restrained way he has raced for the last 2 1/2 weeks -- was a revealing look into the emotional engine of an athlete who is almost entirely self-made.

He said he awoke to a headline that angered him. Landis doesn't speak French but the words chosen by the regional newspaper were direct, and in English.

``Landis out," announced the Dauphine Libere. The 30-year-old Phonak leader imploded Wednesday on the ascent of La Toussuire, losing the yellow jersey and seemingly any realistic chance of getting it back.

But this Tour is unlike any in the last decade or more. Landis counted on that when he made his bold -- and as he admitted, somewhat absurd -- move and kept it going for 78 miles of the 124.6-mile stage.

He climbed steadily, dousing himself with water, and tucked into a tight cannonball on the descents. He tried to talk breakaway riders into working with him but got no deals.

``All I could do is hope behind me [the riders in the main peloton] were disorganized or not strong enough to catch me," Landis said. ``I didn't have a whole lot of information. When the time gaps stayed the same for a long period of time, I was pretty sure they were working as hard as they could and I was going to be OK."

Tour aficionados were falling over each other to find the right adjectives for the epic ride.

``What he did today was a move by somebody who had nothing to lose," said Tour commentator and former rider Paul Sherwen. ``It might pay off once in 50 years, and it did.

``I admit this morning I said it was absolutely and utterly impossible. And I'm proud to be wrong."

Five-time Tour winner Bernard Hinault, one of the most aggressive riders of his day, said he recognized a competitive soul mate in Landis.

``It was almost vengeance, what he did today," Hinault said, showing his famous toothy grin. ``He said, `Yesterday I had a bad day and today I showed them I can make them have a bad day.' "

Landis's trainer, Allen Lim, said Landis almost immediately shook off Wednesday's disaster and set his sights on yesterday. ``The plan was to throw down a Hail Mary," Lim said, and try to get back within reasonable striking distance before the time trial.

Even Landis acknowledged he couldn't have dreamed his strategy would work so well. When the shellshocked press corps asked him what he expected in the next few days, he smiled and declined.

``It wouldn't be any fun if I told you what was going to happen next," he said. ``What I hope happens, I think, is obvious."