More about Floyd from Velo News. Given the tire problem, hurried and tardy start, and the short course requiring accelerations, I believe Floyd's performance is the most impressive. I wonder how the tire got cut? French perfidy knows no bounds!!!!

http://www.velonews.com/tour2006/det...s/10191.0.html

In fact were it not for some pre-race drama, American Floyd Landis might well have taken the opening day win. Instead the Phonak rider ended up ninth at nine seconds back, after a slice in his tire caused him to arrive late for his starting time.

"You can't take the risk to go," explained Phonak team director John Lelangue who ordered his star rider's wheel changed before he started the prologue. "If you explode in a curve you lose the Tour de France. You don't take this kind of risk. If you are a time trialist and this is your big focus, maybe, but if not, you don't take the risk. I think it was easier for everybody to not take the risk. Of course it was a big stress for Floyd just before the start, but he did really good and was able to concentrate after that. After one kilometer he was fine."

Following the stage, Landis spent 10 minutes cooling down in the team bus, then pulled a white T-shirt over his jersey and darted away on a bike without talking to reporters. But Landis's personal trainer Allan Lim was pleased with his No. 1 client's effort.

"There's no doubt he's riding really well," said Lim. "A prologue of this distance isn't a great distance for Floyd. He's a better long time trial trialist. Today was a technical course with some hard corners where you really had to put down some fast accelerations. That can be difficult for a guy like Floyd who has a bigger, more steady-state engine."