Floyd Landis of Phonak won the Stage 3 Time Trial in Rome, GA and took the overall GC lead, Lance placed 9th.
It was good to be back in Rome, even though it was a bit rainy today. Last year Rome hosted a stage finish and the time trial on the same day. This year the road stage finish was yesterday and the time trial today.
We arrived around 10:45am and checked out the expo before staking our spot at the top of the short climb on 5th street approx 500m before the finish. I took quite a few shots at the top of the climb and at the bottom. They're up at Flickr.
After the stage finish I went to the side of the podium and saw Floyd and the rest of the top 3. Phonak Chairman Andy Riis was in the states to cheer on Floyd. The whole time I saw him he was on the phone to Europe talking up the win.
As we hung around after the finish one of the TdG staff drove a truck into the finish-line structure, knocking it over. Luckily there was nobody underneath it. The two race-timing clocks on top did not fair so well though.
Rather than fighting the traffic out of Rome we hung around and ate a late lunch. Searching out a restaurant I spied Ted Arnold of Pez Cycling at a local cafe. Our crew of eight ended up at Jefferson's. We were sitting right next to photographer Celia Cole who is working this race for Daily Peloton. Some of Celia's shots can also be seen at The Paceline.
I'll post some more in a bit.
