Garrett Lai

After his meltdown in the Alps, Floyd Landis was completely written off by everyone — except Floyd himself. He put that belief to the test Thursday, showing all the world just what it means to believe.

Landis finished Wednesday's stage 16 a spent man. He had completely imploded on the final climb, losing more than 10 minutes on the stage and finishing a shocking 8:08 out of first place on the overall, dropping to 11th place. He was done. Cooked. I even wrote that I wouldn’t be surprised if he was a non-starter for Thursday's stage 17.

Boy, was I wrong. But so was everyone else.

Landis' victory Thursday was a miracle ride, the most exciting Tour stage — hell, the most amazing bike race — I’ve ever witnessed. There hasn’t been a solo move like this in decades.

Nothing like this has ever happened in the modern era. With up-to-the-second coverage on live television in the team directors’ cars, and radio communication with riders, big moves like this have never been allowed to develop. They're shut down the instant they’re threatening.

But on Thursday, Floyd made the most amazing solo ride of the modern Tour, eclipsing even Greg LeMond’s incredible final time trial in 1989, when he eked out an eight-second lead over Laurent Fignon, making up almost two minutes and setting the record for the closest Tour de France ever.

Floyd’s ride was epic, in every way. On the final climbing day, a harrowing course profile of five climbs and treacherous technical descents, he was simply unstoppable. He didn’t receive a lick of help from anyone in the field. To a man, they simply sat on his wheel and wilted as he left them behind, spent.

And Landis rode himself back onto the podium, from 11th place to third, only 30 seconds off the top step. This might not be a popular pronouncement, but Floyd’s ride Thursday was more impressive, more gutsy, than anything Lance Armstrong ever did at the Tour. Landis faced off against the very best riders in the world, absorbed every attack, and did it alone.

I’m eating serious crow, after my pronouncement Wednesday that America was going to miss the podium this year. That was after I had to eat crow from my column Tuesday that predicted Floyd would keep the yellow jersey for the rest of the Tour, all the way into Paris.

I hadn’t counted on Floyd to do what he did. And neither had anyone else.

Furious surge to the front
About seven miles into Thursday's 124.6-mile stage, 13 riders launched off the front. The group was winnowed down to 11, who held an 8:30 lead over the main pack by the 30-mile mark, the threshold of the first climb, the category 1 ascent of the Col des Saisies.

The pack was content to let the breakaway group have its fun — the highest-placed rider was nearly 50 minutes down on the overall standings.

At one point, the breakaway group had an 11-minute advantage on the peloton, before Phonak led the charge up the Col des Saisies and hauled them back to 10 minutes. CSC’s Carlos Sastre, T-Mobile’s Andreas Kloden and Michael Rogers, Davitamon's Cadel Evans and Landis surged out of the pack together, and Rabobank’s Denis Menchov jumped across to put the biggest threats to Oscar Pereiro’s yellow jersey into the bunch.

Alessandro Trovati / AP Spectators encourage Floyd Landis as he rides up the Joux-Plane pass during the 17th stage.

Then the race took an unexpected turn: Floyd upped the pace and was allowed to ride alone off the front. After Wednesday's implosion, Landis looked done, with no chance at a top-3 finish in Paris. That was the only reason he was allowed to go up the road; the peloton figured it was his moment of redemption, a chance to show some strength before being absorbed back in.

What they didn’t expect was that Landis was packing a serious motor Thursday, and the determination to use it.

Up the slope of the Saisies, Landis ground steadily on, but at a furious pace. Six kilometers before the leaders hit the summit he was 5:23 behind, riding in no-man’s land and dangling 1:20 ahead of the yellow jersey group. But with 5km to go to the top for the leaders, Floyd had brought the gap down to 5:00. Making up 23 seconds per kilometer isn’t just going fast, it's hauling.

Over the top of the first climb, Landis was just 2:50 behind the lead group, while the yellow jersey group of nearly 50 riders was more than 6:00 off the lead, and still on the climb.

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On the second climb, Landis caught the lead group and didn’t break stride. He rode around them, got out front and continued his relentless pace. Up the road was Credit Agricole’s Patrice Halgand, and Landis was stretching the group out, 4:04 ahead of the yellow jersey bunch and closing on Hagland.

As Halgand crested the category 2 Col des Aravis, Landis was 1:40 behind and closing fast, going so hard that riders were simply dropping off the back. By the time Floyd went over the top, he was 1:14 behind Halgand. When he caught the Frenchman, only two riders remained with Floyd, who was so utterly composed he wasn't flustered at all after breaking a spoke and making a bike swap on the ascent of the category-1 Col de la Colombiere.

It was a far cry from Wednesday's shattered rider. This was a man utterly in control.

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