“I’ve never seen anything like what Floyd did yesterday,” said one of the last riders to follow the winner of stage 17, Michael Rogers (TMO).
LeTour.fr contacted the world time trial champion before stage 18. “It was an amazing performance. Who would think that someone so high in the general classification could be so bold and attack so far from the finish… and still have the energy to win. Incredible!
“I tried to follow him on the Col des Saissies but I can tell you thtat, at the speed Floyd was going, it was impossible for me to maintain the tempo. I was feeling okay at the start of the stage but he was superman: at the moment he dropped everyone, the gradient was about 10 per cent and Floyd was tapping away at about 36-38km/h…!” The Australian is currently 10th overall after finished 22nd in the stage to Morzine. “I just couldn’t do anything at the finish. I was vomiting all day. Every time I ate anything, it came back up. It’s not the best way to ride a stage like that.”
1 097 PEREIRO SIO Oscar CEI ESP
2 014 SASTRE Carlos CSC ESP 00' 12"
3 071 LANDIS Floyd PHO USA 00' 30"
4 021 KLÖDEN Andréas TMO GER 02' 29"
5 061 EVANS Cadel DVL AUS 03' 08"
6 051 MENCHOV Denis RAB RUS 04' 14"
7 035 DESSEL Cyril A2R FRA 04' 24"
8 031 MOREAU Christophe A2R FRA 05' 45"
9 129 ZUBELDIA Haimar EUS ESP 08' 16"
10 026 ROGERS Michael TMO AUS 12' 13"
11 015 SCHLECK Frank CSC LUX 13' 48"
12 052 BOOGERD Michael RAB NED 13' 52"
13 111 CAUCCHIOLI Pietro C.A ITA 15' 46"
14 081 CUNEGO Damiano LAM ITA 17' 18"
15 042 FOTHEN Marcus GST GER 17' 23"
16 088 VALJAVEC Tadej LAM SLO 20' 50"
17 058 RASMUSSEN Mickael RAB DEN 21' 04"
18 041 LEIPHEIMER Levi GST USA 22' 01"
19 001 AZEVEDO José DSC POR 34' 01"
20 092 ARROYO David CEI ESP 37' 11"
21 089 VILA ERRANDONEA Patxi LAM ESP 37'
45" 22 084 BRUSEGHIN Marzio LAM ITA 39' 47"
23 016 VANDEVELDE Christian CSC USA 47' 16"
24 007 POPOVYCH Yaroslav DSC UKR 48' 51"
25 027 SINKEWITZ Patrik TMO GER 50' 07"
26 022 GUERINI Giuseppe TMO ITA 51' 48"
27 032 ARRIETA Jose Luis A2R ESP 55' 43"
28 025 MAZZOLENI Eddy TMO ITA 57' 52"
Remaining riders thru 143 are more than 1hr behind leader, and thus may be considered 'Just glad to be there...' Or maybe not! ;>)
That really caught my eye too. That's 23 mph on 10%... I can probably do about half that.