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Landis wins Alpine stage, jumps to 3rd overall in Tour de France

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MORZINE, France (AP) – In a stunning turnaround a day after he was all but written off, Pennsylvania native Floyd Landis moved back into contention at the Tour de France on Thursday, winning the final Alpine stage in a solo finish to jump from 11th to third. Landis, who lost the leader’s yellow jersey Wednesday after struggling at the uphill finish, bounced back by bursting ahead of the main pack in the first of three tough ascents in the 17th stage.

“I was very, very disappointed yesterday for a little while,” Landis said. “Today I thought I could show that at least I would keep fighting.”

“I wasn’t giving up just yet,” he added.

The stage win was his first at the Tour in five appearances.

“He reacted like a great champion,” said France’s Cyril Dessel, who fell from fourth to seventh place overall.

Landis, who’s riding on an injured right hip that will be replaced after the Tour, entered Thursday’s stage in 11th place, trailing Pereiro by 8 minutes, 8 seconds. Afterward, he jumped to third – 30 seconds back of Pereiro. Spaniard Carlos Sastre is second, 12 seconds behind.

With the tough Alpine climbs over, Saturday’s individual time trial shapes up as a crucial test in this year’s topsy-turvy Tour. The race against the clock – a 35.4-mile course that snakes from Le Creusot to Montceau-les-Mines – is similar in length to the Stage 7 time trial but features more hills. Landis finished second overall in that time trial, 1:10 faster than Sastre and 1:40 ahead of Pereiro.

Seven different riders have worn the yellow jersey since the three-week race, which ends Sunday, began July 1. With his second astonishing ride in the Alps, Landis has not given up on winning the Tour.

For three days, Landis’ performance has echoed the hills and valleys of the brutal Alpine stages.

Tuesday, Landis reclaimed the yellow jersey from Pereiro after a spectacular ride up the famed L’Alpe d’Huez. The ride set the stage for Landis to dominate the punishing and crucial mountain stages.

But Wednesday, Landis – abandoned by his teammates – fell apart, barely moving up the final torturous climb as rider after rider passed dropping him to 11th place. Landis’ comments Wednesday night – his thoughts only on a cold beer – left little hope the cyclist would recover.

In a striking reversal Thursday, Landis took control with about 79 miles to go in the 124.3-mile stage, taking off on the first of three tough ascents. Rivals Sastre and Pereiro could not keep up.

Landis pumped his right fist in celebration as he crossed the finish and hopped off his bike after completing the stage in 5 hours, 23 minutes, 36 seconds.

He said he anticipated his main rivals might be tired after two punishing days of climbs in the Alps and praised his Phonak teammates for their hard work to help him along.

“No matter what, whether I win or lose, I wanted to prove to my team that I deserved to be the leader,” he said. “I didn’t expect it to work quite that well.”

Sastre finished second, 5:42 behind. France’s Christophe Moreau was third, 5:58 back, and Pereiro was seventh, trailing Landis by 7:08.

Riders set off from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne and covered three hard climbs – one of them so hard that it defies classification in cycling’s ranking system – before the speedy descent into Morzine.

Landis trimmed an extra 30 seconds from his deficit to Pereiro by earning bonus points for winning the stage and placing well in sprints along the course route.

Landis first jumped out in front of his major rivals at the 45-mile mark along the first tough climb up the Col des Saisies.

“He is just showing that he’s a real soldier,” said Bernard Hinault, a Frenchman who won the Tour five times, during the stage. “I’m a big fan of Floyd today. … He’s got an aggressive streak.”

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