Dr Allen Lim: UCI aero rule cost Landis time

By John Kenny

Phonak's Floyd Landis' forced positional change before Saturday's time trial might have cost him at least 30 seconds, according to Dr Allen Lim, Landis' training advisor.

Landis was forced to stop during the time trial to change bikes after his aerodynamic handlebars broke. The handlebar change came after the UCI ruled that the angle of the bars had to be set lower. "I not only lost a lot of time as a result of that. I also had to find my racing rhythm again right away," said Landis who had lost only 17 seconds by the first intermediate time check.

"Well, [Landis] had a little bit of a mishap, breaking his time trial bars and having to change his bike...," said Lim. The bike change and being forced to change his aero position combined to cost Landis time, "If we factor in the time lost in the stop and if we also consider the aerodynamic changes that occurred with the bicycle [his final time was affected]," said Lim. "In fact, had he not had those mishaps, I think he would only have been 22 or 23 seconds down on first place," he added. Landis ended up finishing one minute behind winner Serguei Gonchar (T-Mobile).

The full interview with Dr Allen Lim can be found here.