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Riders adjust strategy to climb

LORIENT, France - After the rest day, when sleep, massages and a light ride are in order, the Tour de France gets going again today with a flat and likely fast stage from Bordeaux to Dax in the southwest. Then, on Wednesday, comes the first of two hard climbing days in the Pyrenees.

For riders who fared poorly - and there were many - in the first long time trial Saturday, the mountains could offer a chance to make amends.

Americans George Hincapie and Levi Leipheimer each planned to rest Monday after losing crucial minutes over the weekend.

Floyd Landis, the Phonak leader, was more upbeat after he placed a strong second and rose to second overall in Saturday's race against the clock - vaulting him to front-runner status.

But he said the climbs in the Pyrenees - and the Alps next week - could bring a new shakeout among potential favorites.

"The mountains will tell us more, but so far, it's fine," Landis said outside a team bus before Sunday's flat stage from Saint-Meen-le-Grand to Lorient, on the Brittany coast, won by France's Sylvain Calzati.

The Lancaster, Pa., native trails race leader Serhiy Honchar of Ukraine by 1 minute in the overall standings, and said Phonak will have to re-evaluate its plans over the next few days to contend with the race situation.

Honchar, who blew away the field in Saturday's time trial, has eight top-10 finishes in the Italian tour and finished second in 2004. He could be a dilemma for Landis because the Ukrainian has a solid supporting cast on the German T-Mobile squad.

"We have to be extremely careful because, with the team that they have, they are capable of creating diversions," Landis' team manager Jacques Michaud said. "We have to be totally vigilant."

Hincapie's Discovery Channel team and Gerolsteiner, headed by Leipheimer, were looking for ways to be more aggressive in the mountain stages and looking to get their stars back in the race.

Hincapie, who trails Honchar by 2:30 and is in 17th place overall, said he may have been dehydrated, or had eaten too early before the time trial.

"For me, it's going to just be important to recover and get a good rest day," said the New York native, "and hopefully I'll be back to normal in the mountain stages."

Leipheimer, of Butte, Mont., said he has not been feeling very well in recent days, but declined to specify what the problem was. "I don't want to make excuses," he said.

Leipheimer, who won the Dauphine Libere stage race in France in May, struggled in the time trial, and was in 63rd place overall - 6:17 back of Honchar, severely damaging his chances of winning.

"The thing I have to focus on now is just trying to recover and get back to my normal self and feel good again," Leipheimer said. "And that's not always easy to do in the middle of the Tour de France."

"But I'm hanging in there and hoping for better things," he added.

TOUR DE FRANCE

Today, STAGE 9: After Monday's day of rest, the riders get one more flat stage, from Bordeaux to Dax in southwest France. From there, the climbs into the Pyrenees loom.

TV: 8:30 a.m., OLN

[Last modified July 11, 2006, 06:39:15]