04/18/24
July 13, 2006
Hip hip hooray.: A few days after announcing that he would need hip replacement surgery in the off-season, Floyd Landis takes the yellow jersey in the Tour de France.
GO FLOYD GO....I hope he keeps the Tour De France title in America
posted by Adidas410s at 06:08 PM on July 13, 2006
GO FLOYD GO....I hope he keeps the Tour De France title in America
posted by Adidas410s at 06:09 PM on July 13, 2006
While I'd like to see Landis take it home, realistically, I don't see it happening. A great story to be sure, but the happy ending will probably be just out of his reach. Hell of an effort, though. The Tour sure could use an uplifting story this year, considering the doping scandal and the fact that there aren't any cancer survivors in the race. Well, none that I know of, anyway.
posted by The_Black_Hand at 07:33 AM on July 14, 2006
I dunno, TBH, he was looking super-strong yesterday and you have to ask yourself who is challengers are? Menchov always appears to be a grinder to me, at the very limit of his climbing ability. He can follow wheels comfortably, but I've never seen him attack or finish a big mountain stage on his own. Where is he going to put time into Landis? Sastre is a good rider, but woefully inconsistent, as evidenced in the Vuelta last year. Evans is a threat, and the Alps are his best terrain, but he has a poor team centred around Robbie McEwen. He was looking extremely stretched on yesterday's final climb. Plus, a final 56 kilometre time trial the day before Paris? It's all in Floyd's favour.
posted by afx237vi at 08:06 AM on July 14, 2006
Floyd is an interesting character. He was brought up as a Mennonite until his late teens, when he would sneak out of his house and go training on his mountainbike in the middle of the night. He started racing when he was 17, and at that point, he had never seen a movie. After that, he became one of Lance Armstrong's most relied upon domestiques, before moving to Phonak and becoming a team captain in his own right (much to Armstrong's wrath). The rest is history. Right now his main rivals are the Russian, Denis Menchov and Australian Cadel Evans (a fellow ex-mtb rider). With the Alps still to come, Floyd is in a good position, but the race ain't over yet.