I remember this very well. Landis had the yellow jersey after the Pyrenees but his team wasn't strong enough to defend it. The manager at the time just decided to give the breakaway as much time as they wanted and Phonak (landis' team) was riding the bunch at super slow speed basically resting and happy to give back the yellow jersey to pereiro who was >20min behind Landis and wasn't considered as a threat.

Funny thing is Pereiro actually defended his jersey really bravely in the Alpes and then we know what happened with Landis and eventually Pereiro finished 2nd and was considered winner after landis was disqualified. Crazy tour.

Pereiro had lost nearly half an hour in the pyrenees? It was pretty normal at that time to have a active 'restday' after big mountain stages and let some escapers win with 20 or more minutes. Because some one who looses half an hour in the pyrenees is not really a danger for the GC guys. But pereiro was 10th or so in the Tour some years befor, so no idea why they gave him the chance to come back. A Landis attacked early on a mountain, dropped everybody, didnt loose anytime on the flat part against 3 full teams chasing, and won the stage, after loosing 8 minutes on the Day befor because of not eating enough. Yeah doping gives you really wings.

That stage where Landis attacked in the first climb and gained 10 minutes on everyone on his own against the bunch was truly epic. Was 14 years old at the time so quite naive which made it a lot better

When you look back at the years 2001 (Simon) and 2004 (voeckler) there were also big groups who successfully attacked and made it to the finish with big time gaps. Diffrent time back then, how much i miss those armstrong vs ullrich battles

Yeah was the year one after armstrong and they suspended nearly every favorite a week befor the tour(fuentes?). Was so sad for klöden. Would be his year without letting oscar pereiro sio win half an hour after the pyrenees

The main peloton, including Floyd Landis, did not see anyone in this group as a threat, so they allowed them to get away and stay away.

But this was intentional, because the previous mountain stages had shown that from Landis's teammates, only Axel Merckx was somewhat able to stay with Landis and help him. Through losing the yellow jersey, the Phonak team made sure that those teammates did not have to ride after the escaped riders every day; instead they now leave that responsibility to Pereiro's team, Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears.

In the peloton, the teammates of Menchov from Rabobank started increasing the pace, as they wanted Landis to remain in yellow to have his teammates work hard the next few days. After a few kilometres, however, they gave up and so the peloton finished 29'57" behind Voigt.

As is the case with all stage winners, Landis was tested as part of the Tour's standard doping precautions. On 27 July 2006, one week after the stage finished, the Phonak announced that the "A" test on Landis's urine sample had come back "positive" for banned synthetic testosterone as well as a ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone nearly three times the limit allowed by World Anti-Doping Agency rules.

Pereiro wasn't considered as a contender for the GC. The GC favorites expected to drop him easily in the coming mountain stages. Pretty much everyone expected that Pereiro would only have the jersey for a couple of days and not able to be a part of the battle for the podium. It just turned out that he suddenly wasn't that easy to drop once he got the yellow jersey.

As for Landis' solo ride, well, it was a legendary stage in more than one way. I think everybody who watched it still remember it clearly. The funniest part was the flat part before the last mountain when Landis

I remember there was a big group of breakaway at the very beginning of the stage and Landis broke away only during the first col. The favorites kinda looked at each other and decided to let him go.

Then after the first col, Landis very quickly joined the group of breakaway and didn't even bother staying with them for a while just went right past them and kept riding in front on his own for the remaining 100km or so

Btw pereiro finished in the top 10 each year from 2004-2007

Yeah, there was even a flat section before the last climb where CSC, T-Mobile and Caisse were going full gas in the peloton with several riders and weren't even able to gain any time on Landis who was riding alone. It was pretty hilarious.

Funnily enough he still denies having taken testosterone despite admitting to years of rampant EPO abuse. Of course liars gonna lie, but it would be hilarious if he never actually did take the test.

The funniest part of the Landis stage was the first climb, T-Mobile had a superstrong team nobody could follow him

The other fun part is that the cocktail Landis took to be so much stronger than his opponents is probably what people in the 50/60/70s took regularly when there was no way to test a rider. They just had to take as much amphetamines as their body would allow

Tony Martin has a broken collarbone. Probably out of the Tour, but no official announcement as of yet.

Here's the crash.

http://gfycat.com/JoyousWeakBoa

He took out Nibali and almost took out Froome. Apparently, Nibali thought Froome was at fault and threw a water bottle at him. But I guess they cleared things up later. Both Nibali and Froome were uninjured.

I bet Sagan would love a team where anyone at all rides for him.

He knew exactly what he was getting into when he signed a 4 million Euro contract with a team obviously riding for GC at The Tour.

Also lol Nibali. Froome was on the right, how could he possibly think he was at fault?

Nah, I'm joking about Sagan tho. I don't think he even cares. Just a kid out there having fun.

It's official now:

Source: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mart...red-collarbone

Thanks for the spoiler?

Sorry. I forget that some people don't watch it live.

Drugs or not, that was the goat ride.

Ya amphetamine for energy and opiate to dull the pain. Essentially Speedball's.

Love how Martin took out all the favorites except Alberto, rigged.

I was so stoked for Martin to get that win.

That crash looked completely his fault and almost malicious...

What am I missing?

Edit: Watched it a couple more times looks like he clipped the rider in fronts wheel.

Lol why read the thread if you haven't watched the stage. That's silly.