Landis in pole position

Floyd Landis may lie third in the general classification behind Spaniards Carlos Sastre and Oscar Pereiro, but he is undoubtedly the man in pole position.

The Pennsylvanian finished second to Serhiy Hontchar in the first time-trial of the tour, finishing over a minute ahead of both of his current main rivals for this year's yellow jersey.

Sastre fought his way into the reckoning with a series of strong performances in the Alps, one sensed in the comments of the Team CSC rider, that knows a mere 18 second advantage over Landis may not prove sufficient:

"Maybe it will be difficult for the time trial, but we'll see what happens. I'll do my best in the time trial, but that's all. You need strength, motivation and technical ability for the time trial. It's a combination of factors."

One name most people didn't expect to see in contention for the yellow jersey after the Alps was that of Caisse d'Epargne's Oscar Pereiro. A stunning breakaway on stage 13, shot the 28 year-old into the lead after losing half an hour on Landis in the Pyrenees. To his credit, and against most analysts' predictions, Pereiro then emerged from three torturous alpine stages with the yellow jersey.

"Tomorrow will be the most important time trial in my life," he said, aware that he is unlikely to be presented with such a chance to win cycling's showpiece event again.

If he is to cap a highly unpredictable Tour with a shock win, he must finish within half a minute of Landis of Saturday.

It is the American who holds all the aces though, and the Tour is his to win or lose. Should he take victory in Paris, it would go down as one of the most extraordinary wins ever.

Not just due to his stunning performance on stage 17, where he propelled himself back up the general classification after cracking on the previous day's stage, but also when one bears in mind he is competing with a degenerative hip condition.

The ball of Landis' hip has crumbled and collapsed to such an extent that he now walks with a limp and can only mount his bicycle right-leg first. He is scheduled to have a hip replacement after the Tour, though for the last few years has simply had to deal with the pain the condition causes.

After riding himself back into contention on Thursday, the 30 year-old provided a fair assessment of his chances of becoming only the second man this century to win the Tour:

"I'm confident in my time trialing. If you watched today, then you probably agree with me."