CYCLING: LANDIS CLOSING IN ON VICTORY.Byline: Gideon Rubin Special to the Daily News THOUSAND OAKS Thousand Oaks, residential city (1990 pop. 104,352), Ventura co., S Calif., in a farm area; inc. 1964. Avocados, citrus, vegetables, strawberries, and nursery products are grown. - Floyd Landis Floyd Landis (born October 14 1975) is an American cyclist whose previous achievements have been overshadowed for his involvement in a 2006 doping scandal. He is a time-trial specialist as well as a strong climber. Landis turned professional in 1999 with the Mercury Cycling Team. is a cycling sensation with Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, ties. On Saturday, he was greeted like a rock star, waving in the direction area fans chanting ``Floyd! Floyd! Floyd!'' after completing Stage 6 of the inaugural Amgen Tour of California The Amgen Tour of California is a professional cycling stage race on the UCI America Tour and USA Cycling Professional Tour that made its debut on February 19, 2006. Sponsored by the biotechnology company Amgen, the eight-day race covers between 650-700 miles (1,045 - 1,126 km). . Landis, whose cycling resume includes a ninth-place finish at last season's Tour de France Tour de France World's most prestigious and difficult bicycle race. Staged for three weeks each July—usually in some 20 daylong stages—the Tour typically comprises 20 professional teams of nine riders each and covers some 3,600 km (2,235 miles) of flat and , owns a prohibitive 29-second lead going into today's final stage, a 76.5-mile circuit race in Redondo Beach Redondo Beach (rĭdŏn`dō), city (1990 pop. 60,167), Los Angeles co., S Calif., on the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1892. Once a commercial port for Los Angeles, it is a residential and resort city with a protected harbor and an excellent marina. that Landis himself acknowledged looks to be a coronation more than anything else. ``One day left, and it doesn't look like it's going to be too eventful,'' said Landis, a 30-year-old Temecula resident who represents Swiss-based Phonak Hearing Systems. ``It's extra sweet because we're going to In-N-Out burgers after this,'' Landis said. ``They don't have that in France.'' Landis is a former Discovery teammate of seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong Lance Armstrong (born Lance Edward Gunderson on September 18, 1971) is a retired American professional road racing cyclist. He won the Tour de France—cycling's most prestigious race—seven consecutive times, from 1999 to 2005. , who attended Saturday's event but was not available for media interviews. The race featured three former Tour de France top-10 finishers and attracted some of the world's top teams. Team CSC Team CSC (UCI Team Code: CSC) is a professional cycling team from Denmark which competes in the road bicycle racing series the UCI ProTour. The team is owned and managed by former Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis, under the management of his company of Denmark, the world's top-ranked team, leads the race by 1 minute and 40 seconds, but has not had an individual stage winner. T-Mobile of Germany's Olaf Pollack Olaf Pollack (born in September 20, 1973 in Räckelwitz, Germany) is a professional road racing cyclist specializing in sprint races and competitions. Results
Pollack, a former world champion who's been dogged by health problems, including a circulatory problem that required pelvic surgery, won his first stage since July of 2004 in Germany's Sachsen Tour in Germany. ``It's special,'' said Pollack, who pumped both fists emphatically after crossing the finish line. ``This is my first win in a year and a half after two operations.'' Race officials said 370,000 fans saw some portion of the stage, bringing the total tour attendance to 1.2 million, the second-highest total for a spectator sports event in state history and the most-watched event since the 1984 summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Three-time Tour de France top-10 placer Levi Leipheimer, a Santa Rosa resident who competes for Germany's Team Gerolsteiner, said the fanfare was comparable to the world's most storied cycling event. ``It's been amazing,'' Leipheimer said. ``Every day we've had huge crowds on all the major climbs, all the finishes and starts. Sometimes I forget if I'm in the Tour de France or the Amgen Tour of California.'' Leipheimer won the prologue in San Francisco on Sunday and won Monday's Stage 1, which concluded in Santa Rosa. Leipheimer fell off the map in Tuesday's time trial, when Landis seized control of the race with a decisive 26-second victory. Thousand Oaks resident Dave Heinrichs, a 40-year old furniture builder, was among thousands of cycling enthusiasts who were at the finish line at Amgen's corporate headquarters. ``It's great to see this many people out here supporting the cyclists,'' Heinrichs said. ``There's a lot a cyclists who train in these hills and it can only benefit them. It can benefit the sport and it can benefit the community.'' Gideon Rubin, (818)713-3607 gideon.rubin(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo, map Photo: T-Mobile of Germany's Olaf Pollack celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win the sixth stage of the Tour of California. Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer Map: STAGE 6 Daily News |
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