Phonak's Floyd Landis at the start of the 19th time trial stage of the 93rd Tour de France between Le Creusot and Montceau-Les-Mines yesterday. Landis finished third and claimed the coveted yellow jersey with just one stage to ride today. - Reuters
MONTCEAU-LES-MINES, France, (Reuters):
AMERICAN FLOYD Landis is poised to succeed Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France's roll of honour after beating his closest rivals in yesterday's decisive time trial won by Ukraine's Serhiy Honchar.
BEST TIME
Phonak rider Landis finished third, 1:11 behind the 2000 time trial world champion, who clocked a best time of one hour seven minutes 45 seconds for the 57-km penultimate stage from Le Creusot to Montceau-Les-Mines.
Landis took the overall leader's yellow jersey off Oscar Pereiro's shoulders as he beat the Spaniard by 1:29 having trailed him by 30 seconds at the start of the day.
Spaniard Pereiro finished fourth on the stage, 2:40 adrift of Honchar and dropped to second overall.
Fellow Spaniard Carlos Sastre finished 20th and lost his place on the podium as German Andreas Kloeden leapfrogged him for third overall after finishing second on the stage, 41 seconds behind T-Mobile teammate Honchar.
Pereiro had started the day with a 12-second advantage over Sastre, while Kloeden had been fourth, 2:29 back.
"I could not be happier. Me and my team gave all we had," said Landis. "It's one of the best days of my life."
