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Stage 17: St. Jean de Maurienne to Morzine-Avoriaz -200.5km

Landis punches the air in exultation as he wins the stage and climbs back into third place overall

Phonak steps up the pace on the Col des Saisies...

We got your panache right here, pal. Whether he intended to or not, Landis offered up a good answer to his critics.

T-Mobile and CSC had to take up the chase after Pereiro's Caisse d'Epargne team evaporated before the Joux Plane.

Landis sets off on his own.

Pereiro fought valiantly and keeps the jersey another day

Landis nears the top of the Joux Plane

Saturday Time Trial takes on added significance

Saturday Time Trial takes on added significance

Santa? There were no gifts for anyone on Thursday.

A seemingly idylic day on to Col des Saisies with Mt. Blanc in the background

Landis knows how to make up for an off day: Follow it with an on day

The chase begins

Landis on a nice little 150km individual TT

Menchov was among the day's most notable victims

Leipheimer joins the Discovery gang on the final climb to Joux-Plane

It was an especially long day in the saddle for some

Sinkewitz drops back to help Kloden.. and looks a little worried about the guy. Is Kloden smiling or is that a grimace?

Hincapie looks for the top of the climb

Chris Horner has fans out there

Whew! Pereiro holds on to his jersey with 12 seconds to spare

What a difference a day makes: Landis, after Wednesday's devastating loss, found new resolve...over a quiet beer with team director John Lelangue

Sastre is 12 seconds out of the lead... with Landis 18 seconds behind.

Halgand emerged at the front of the break... but faltered later when caught and passed by Landis

Landis on the Aravis: Still making time on the peloton, with Sinkewitz and O'Grady in tow.

Gontchar drives hard at the front

Menchov lost time on the Joux Plane

Stage 17 was not Klöden's best day

Course: If L’Alpe d’Huez does not decide the Tour’s likely outcome, then this even tougher day in the Alps should do the job. The survivors first ride the 34km back to the top of the Lautaret, where a left turn takes them another 8.6km at 6.7 percent to the top of the Galibier — the Tour’s highest point at 8681 feet above sea level. After the 35km descent of the Galibier and intermediate Col du Télégraphe, the next 23km is down the Maurienne Valley. Of the remaining 79km, some 47km are uphill, in three separate climbs: the 23km Col de la Croix de Fer, the 6km Col du Mollard and the 18km

It was a mountain too far for Floyd Landis in Wednesday’s epic, four-climb stage 16 across the French Alps as the already-crazy 93rd Tour de France dropped more bombshells in an attack-riddled charge up the finishing climb to La Toussuire. The Phonak team captain apparently bonked on the lower flanks of the 18.4km final climb and saw his hopes of overall victory sink after finishing 22nd on the day, losing eight minutes to the other contenders in the final 12km. A rejuvenated Oscar Pereiro (Caisse d’Épargne-Illes Balears) bounced back into the yellow jersey, while Michael Rasmussen

1. Mickael Rasmussen (Dk), Rabobank, 182km in 5:36:04 (32.493kph)2. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, 01:413. Oscar Pereiro Sio (Sp), Caisse d'Epargne-I.B., 01:544. Cadel Evans (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, 01:565. Andréas Klöden (G), T-Mobile, 01:566. Christophe Moreau (F), Ag2r Prevoyance, 02:377. Pietro Caucchioli (I), Credit Agricole, 02:378. Cyril Dessel (F), Ag2r Prevoyance, 02:379. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Gerolsteiner, 03:2410. Haimar Zubeldia (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 03:42 11. Denis Menchov (Rus), Rabobank, 03:4212. Michael Rogers (Aus), T-Mobile, 03:4213. Eddy Mazzoleni (I), T-Mobile, 03:4214.

Lance Armstrong is in no mood to forgive Tour de France race director Jean-Marie Leblanc. "The problems and the tension there are so deep," Armstrong said Tuesday. "I'm just not very optimistic." After the seven-time Tour winner retired from cycling last summer, Leblanc heralded a fresh start for cycling, predicting an exciting time for Armstrong's longtime rival Jan Ullrich of Germany and the promising Ivan Basso of Italy. But Basso, the 2005 Tour runner-up and 1997 Tour winner Ullrich were kicked out on the eve of this year's Tour, implicated in a Spanish doping

After his disastrous climb up La Toussuire on stage 16, fallen yellow jersey Floyd Landis entered his team car at the finish line without a word to the media. Asked by OLN commentator Frankie Andreu if he wanted to explain what happened to the viewers back home, Landis said simply, “No.” But a few hours later, word trickled through the press room that Landis was holding an impromptu press conference at 7:15, just two hours after he’d lost not only the race lead but any hope of winning the Tour de France. The decision was viewed unanimously as a brave move, and one that even his wife Amber

Nothing is settled in this wild and wacky Tour de France. With one mountain stage to go, six riders are still within four minutes of each other: two Spaniards (Oscar Pereiro and Carlos Sastre), a German (Andréas Klöden), a Frenchman (Cyril Dessel), an Australian (Cadel Evans) and a Russian (Denis Menchov). Thursday’s 200.5km stage 17 from St. Jean-de-Maurienne to Morzine is not the hardest mountain stage of the Tour, but coming after almost three weeks of relentless racing, mostly in heat-wave conditions, it will be a terrible test of perseverance and stamina. More than half the peloton is

With 16 days of hard racing behind them, the peloton is headed for the last day in mountains. From a nutritional perspective, the biggest challenge of a three week stage race like the Tour de France is not only eating to achieve full muscle glycogen recovery off the bike, when riders have large team meals and recovery snacks available to them. But they must also meet the demands of glycogen depletion on the bike, an almost impossible task given the intricacies of race dynamics, stomach and intestinal tolerances, and the gargantuan fuel demands and fluid losses that occur during a

Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong was atop La Toussuire, after a day spent watching stage 16 in the Discovery Channel car with team director Johan Bruyneel. Though Armstrong and Floyd Landis had had a strained relationship since Landis left U.S. Postal Service for Phonak at the end of the 2004 season, Armstrong spoke kindly of Landis at a press conference Tuesday evening at L’Alpe d’Huez, less than 24 hours before Landis’s meltdown. “I know Floyd and I have gone through a whole cycle of ‘on the team, off the team,’ friction here and there,” Armstrong said. “But for me

While Wednesday's biggest news centered on the implosion of American Floyd Landis on the trip up La Toussuire, there was also a lot to take in on the tech front at the 2006 Tour de France. Over at CSC VeloNews got an up-close look at David Zabriskie's new ride, the Cervélo Soloist Carbon SLC-SL. The frame has all the features of its predecessor – beefed-up bottom bracket for added stiffness, thinned-out head and down tubes for better aerodynamics - but is 200 grams lighter. Of course there's a cost for all this – in this case, $4500 for the frameset, or $1100 more than the

After a terrific ride in Wednesday’s 16th stage to La Toussiere, Cadel Evans showered, ate a snack and then invited the media to his team hotel to answer questions about how one of the most astonishing finale’s in modern Tour de France unfolded for him and what he expects in the crucial days ahead. VeloNews.com contributor Rupert Guinness was there VeloNews.com: How did you feel today, Cadel? Cadel Evans: Good, today was a much better race for me. Yesterday (stage 15) when we hit the bottom of the climb, you saw the size of the peloton. It wasn’t a very hard race until that point whereas

I am cooked, twice, maybe three times. I am still trying to get my breath back from today’s stage. I'm not joking. Or, maybe it is from the three plates of pasta I just put down. I - we - are all hurting, but tomorrow somebody will attack from kilometer 0. I don't know why and I don't know how it is possible, but some people are stupid. What can I say? We worked hard today and Carlos delivered what we thought he could. The last climb wasn't really steep enough for him to keep the chasers at bay, but tomorrow the last few climbs will be hard, so we still have one more day

It was a disastrous day for Floyd Landis, but a spectacular race nonetheless, and Casey Gibson was there to bring it all home to you.

Stage 16: Bourg d’Oisans to La Toussuire -182km

Stage 16: Bourg d’Oisans to La Toussuire -182km

The Dane celebrates the end of a long day's work

A clearly shattered Landis

With 4km to go, Klöden, Pereiro and Evans put the big hurt on their rivals

Landis had little to say at the end of the stage, which he finished 10 minutes behind Rasmussen

The Galibier was only the start

Go figure: Five days ago he was in 46th on GC and 28:50 out of first.

No one deserves the Polka Dot jersey more than Rasmussen after Wednesday's ride

That's all she wrote: When Landis faded, he really faded.

Leipheimer gives it a go.

Rasmussen had company... for a while

Landis struggles to finish...

... and then heads to his hotel when he does.

Not a pleasant task

Lelangue and his team leader admit to having a tough day.

Keeping it in perspective

David Z's new ride

The view from the driver's seat

Head tube

Seat tube

Drive train

Giant's integrated post

Look's setup

The Ridley post

Ag2r's B-Twin

Shimano's pedal

Evans stayed with the right guys.

Not everyone in France is happy to see the seven-time... uhhhh... Tour winner show up this year.

Landis leads on the Galibier . . .

. . . only to suffer on the ascent to La Toussuire

Going backward

Schleck and Fothen leave the yellow jersey in their wake

Leipheimer has a go

What photogs do to pass the time while waiting for the race

A fan enjoys a long view of the break on the Galibier

Discovery on the long ride in

The laughing group passes the church on La Toussuire

The church