2006 Tour De France: Far from over

What do Levi Leipheimer, Roberto Heras, Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis have in common? Actually, there are three. Uno, all of the four were domestiques of Lance Armstrong's in US POSTAL. Dos, at certain times, they all left US POSTAL to challenge LA in cycling biggest stage, the Tour. Tres, while they really tried to dethrone LA, they couldn't do it when he was still around.

Today, with Heras and Hamilton in a doping limbo, only Landis, and to a lesser degree, Leipheimer, has a chance what only two Americans, Greg Lemond and LA, had done- win the Tour.

Yesterday, Floyd showed a certain "tranquilo" or coolness to place 3rd in one of the most difficult stage in this years' Tour and grab the yellow jersey in the process. Although Paris is still 9 days away, Floyd has slowly and surely eased himself into pole position. Erstwhile yellow jersey, Cyril Dressel, is 8 seconds behind Floyd overall but lost 4.45 minutes in stage 12. He will fall down in the overall in the next few days.

But to say that the yellow jersey is a sure thing for Floyd is like saying that North Korea is predictable. This race is far from over and Floyd knows that. Dennis Menchov, 2nd @1.01, Cadel Evans, 3rd @1.17, Carlos Sastre, 4th @1.52 and Andreas Kloden, 5th @2.29, have a good chances of toppling Floyd from his perch.

The next mountain stage is next Tuesday so the next three flat days are critical for the leaders. Races are not won on the flats but it can be lost there. That's why you need a good team to set the pace, do the chase and protect the leader from the wind.

While Kloden's T-MOBILE has shown their collective strength the past two days, it was Menchov's RABOBANK who drove the break in the last climb while T-MOBILE faltered in the penultimate climb. Ominously, it was PHONAK who was the weakest. The absence of all of Floyds teammates was so obvious. T-MOBILE, RABOBANK, GEROLSTEINER and LOTTO will test the strength of PHONAK in the next three days and Floyd could lose the yellow jersey if his team is not up to task. But they say that wearing the yellow jersey can give the wearer the strength of two men. The amazing strength of Dressler and his AG2R team showed that. Hopefully, PHONAK can do that.

So hold on to your seats. The Tour is halfway to Paris but the battles have just started.

Tour by the numbers.

Most number of stages won on single Tour: 8-Charles Pelissier (1930), Eddy Merckx (1970, 1974), and Freddy Maertens (1976). . . .Most riders to wear yellow jersey in one Tour: 8 in 1987. . . .Most days spent in yellow jersey: 96 by Eddy Merckx (in 7 participations). . . . Biggest winning margin (since 1947): 28 min 27 sec (Fausto Coppi-Stan Ockers in 1952) . . . .Smallest winning margin: 8 sec (Greg LeMond-Laurent Fignon in 1989). . . .Longest solo breakaway: 253 km by Albert Bourlon in 1947. . . .Biggest winning margin on stage win: 22 min 50 sec by Jose Luis Viejo in 1976. . . .Fastest prologue: 55.152 kph by Chris Boardman in 1994 over 7.2 km