Americans Temporarily Release Death Grip On Tour De France

Floyd Landis is no longer the leader of the Tour de France, after struggling in the longest stage of the Tour de France. Not only is he not leading anymore, but he's over a minute behind. The stage winner was a German named Jens Voigt, and the Overall leader is Spain's Oscar Pereiro.

Landis says it was a tactical choice to let Pereiro surge ahead, so as not to waste any energy. I don't know anything about cycling, of course, but I'm pretty sure that the Tour de France isn't a "go all-out at every point during the race" type of things. Even Pereiro doesn't seem convinced about his own viability as a Tour leader, saying, "I have to be realistic." And Voigt's take on the situation is, ""Floyd is thinking, 'I give it to him on the flat days and take it back later." So I guess Floyd's still in pretty good shape. I think the Pittsburgh Pirates should try that excuse. "Yeah, we're saving our energy for 2014."

Yesterday day was Bastille Day, which I guess is kind of a big day in the Tour de France. In a French guy wins the stage, the country apparently will go nuts for him, but unfortunately for France, they never win anything. A Ukranian guy won the stage. All I know about Bastille Day is that when I was in high school, and I wore too much cologne, my mother would say to me, "You smell like a French whore on Bastille Day."

Landis loses Tour de France lead [Fox Sports] Ukrainian Puts a Damper on a Bastille Day Party [NY Times]