Nobody could quite believe what happened in Stage 17 of Le Tour de France. Everybody knew that it was Landis' last chance of making a comeback In the Tour, but there was no one in the peloton that could have guessed his incredible performance. It has been proven, once again, that cycling can still take a deep breath despite Armstrong, Basso or Ullrich missing Le Tour.

Floyd Landis, a man of few words, warned his opponents one day before. "If you want to win Le Tour, you have to deal with me! I want to win the Tour!". Well, he might just do that, considering the fact that Landis is the best time-trial specialists between the first 3 in the overall standings.

The fact that he managed to re-gain the 8 minutes lost one stage earlier stunned even his opponents. They all - except for Moreau - were very impressed with Landis' performance and said the American was, truly, "a great champion". "We saw a huge Floyd Landis out there today. I think what he did in the end was completely unexpected. Mathematically, I thought he was going to lose time on the final climb after all the efforts he put in earlier, but I was wrong I think today he showed that he is a big champion", said CSC sports director, Alain Gallopin.

More, his opponent and major rival for the final victory, Carlos Sastre - riding for CSC - also praised the American's efforts: "I saw him this morning and I thought he would attack, but he just split the peloton in thirty pieces. He went like an eagle on the first climb and against that you can't do anything. It was too early for me and I needed to conserve my energy. I have a lot of respect for Landis. He's a really strong rider and for sure he came to the Tour to win the race. Today he tried everything to get back into it".

Among all, Bjarne Riis was the one truly amazed by what Landis managed to do. The second CSC sports director who lost all hope for a Tour victory when he found out that Basso was involved in the "Puerto affair" - and, therefore, banned from the competition - admitted that Landis is the new favorite for the final victory: "I thought Landis was going to crack, but he was strong. Carlos was strong today too and showed on the last climb that he was there. The favorite, the number one, though, is Landis, that's for sure. I didn't expect that from him".