Chasing Floyd

The American took the lead on Wednesday, finishing just behind stage-three winner Patxi Vila after a rigorous final climb up the Col de la Croix de Chaubouret.

Landis knew that he would attack on the fourth day of the Race to the Sun, saying after the race that it was part of his "tactic" to claim his first major tour victory.

"I decided to attack before the summit, because the finish at the base of the descent was ideal for me," Landis said after he took the overall lead from Tom Boonen (Quick Step), the winner of the race's first two stages.

"Paris-Nice is a great objective for the year. We'll do our best, but it's not easy. We don't necessarily have the strongest team.

Landis' Phonak squad was dealt a serious blow when both Robert Hunter and Aurélien Clerc were forced to abandon the race. Hunter went out with bronchitis and Clerc missed the time cut, leaving Phonak with only six riders to finish Paris-Nice.

'It was a little bit out of control today. Fortunately we had guys in the breakaways," Landis said. "We'll take it one day at a time."

Phonak's sporting director John Lelongue was more optimistic.

"Everything went as expected," said Lelongue. "He needed to take advantage of this stage, which was ideal for us with the finish set up right after the descent of the final climb."

Thursday's fourth stage from Saint-Etienne to Rasteau features a Cat. 1 climb at the Col de la Repulbique 12.5km from the start, but is fairly flat the rest of the way, ending with a descent from the Cat. 3 Cote de Buisson.

Riding with fewer teammates until Sunday's final stage, Landis will face serious competition from several challengers.

Though Vila (Lampre) is only nine seconds behind Landis in the overall classifications, the Spaniard isn't a major threat. Wendesday's stage win was his first victory as a professional.

More dangerous is CSC rider Franck Schleck, who finished fourth in stage three and currently lies fifth overall one minute and 23 seconds off of Landis' pace.

Schleck finished seventh in last year's Paris-Nice, which his teammate Bobby Julich won. Schleck will try to be the third straight CSC rider to end on the Promenade Des Anglais with the yellow jersey after Julich, the winner of this year's prologue, dropped out of the hunt losing close to nine minutes on Wednesday.

"Fränk lost a bit of momentum at the final part of the climb, and he wasn't able to bridge up to the two leaders on the descent towards Saint Etienne," said team director Bjarne Riis. "It was a very hard stage and Bobby Julich lost a lot of time. Now we will try to support Fränk the best we can in order for him to improve in GC.

"Generally speaking we are back to where we started this race. We didn't think we would have a rider for the overall win, but still we'll try to make a good result in this race."