Floyd Landis is a hell of a cyclist! I have to admit that I didn't really thought I'm going to watch a Tour de France stage from beginning to end this year, since most of the top-class cyclists were banned from Le Tour. Still, when seeing Landis go like that from the early kilometers of the 17th stage - the last in the mountains - I couldn't keep my eyes off the TV. Even if a first group broke-through earlier, you knew that this was going to be a special day for the Phonak rider.

Either he could make up for the 10 minutes lost in the 16th stage, or he will forever lose the chance to win the competition. And the peloton has been warned last night, when Landis told the French media that "I am going to keep fighting till it's finished". And that's exactly what he did. He attacked early in the stage, trying to catch the first group of cyclists that made an even earlier break-away.

Col de Saisies is where it all began. The first major climb of the day - 1st category - was the moment that Landis wanted to fight destiny. Although nobody was giving him a chance, he started to put some minutes between him and the peloton. On the second climb, he already caught the other break-away-s. He had 6 minutes in front of the "yellow jersey" and all seemed possible.

The American fought even harder and left the group. 45 kilometers until the finish line and Landis was, again, a "yellow jersey". He managed to obtain a 9-minute break-away. That's when the CSC team fought and brought the peloton just 7 minutes away. Carlos Sastre knew that this was the perfect time to attack Oscar Pereiro and close the gap on Landis. So he attacked the peloton.

Floyd reached the finish line and didn't even have the power to lift up his hands. He just hit a punch into the air and went directly to the video screens. Sastre was closing the gap on him. The CSC Spaniard did everything possible to earn some time. And he finished 5 minutes and 32 seconds behind. Oscar Pereiro failed to gain some bonus-points and came in 7 minutes and 8 seconds behind the American.

In the overall standings, Landis got closer than ever to Oscar Pereiro and Carlos Sastre. The first now hold a 12-seconds advantage over Sastre and a 30-seconds advantage over Landis. The Saturday time-trials will be decisive.