Cycling: Landis poised for Tour glory

MONTCEAU-LES-MINES, France - The first words of Floyd Landis on claiming the yellow jersey after last night's (NZ time) penultimate stage of the Tour de France were to say that the race was not over yet.

It was a joke and it became obvious when he added, referring to the fact that he had already reached first place overall in the Pyrenees and then lost it when he cracked in the Alps: "I'm not exactly sure of what will happen next but I hope we can manage to handle tomorrow at least."

After finishing third in Saturday's decisive individual time trial, Landis will start tonight's (NZ time) last stage with a 59 seconds lead over Spaniard Oscar Pereiro with German Andreas Kloeden third, 1:29 off the pace.

"I was massively beaten today but it doesn't matter. My objective was to win the Tour," said Landis, the leader of the Phonak team who ended the stage 1:11 adrift of the winner, Ukrainian Serhiy Honchar.

The American, a former lieutenant of Lance Armstrong who was regarded as a pre-race favourite, claimed the yellow jersey for the first time after the 11th stage and the first real mountain test.

He lost it two days later but won it again after the showcase stage of L'Alpe d'Huez last Monday only to crack on the last ascent of Wednesday's 16th stage.

"It was the most humiliating thing that ever happened to me. It took me a few hours before I recovered my fighting spirit," he said.

The American made up eight minutes when he won Thursday's final mountain stage. He was still 30 seconds adrift of Pereiro but he was back in the race and out-performed the Spaniard in the time trial.

He told reporters: "What motivates me is the dream of winning races. When I was riding for Lance, I wished and hoped I would have the opportunity to become a leader and to wear the yellow jersey.

"It also takes a lot of work and a lot of luck. So, I guess I'm lucky."

The American faces hip surgery in the next two or three months to cure residual pain from a crash in January 2003.

He said: "Having won the race, I'll be much more relaxed about it. I'll fight to come back next year or the following year, whatever it takes because cycling is a beautiful sport."

- REUTERS