Floyd Landis Smack Down on Stage 17
It has already been said that Thursday’s Tour stage 17 was the one of the most exciting stages as of late, and hats off to the excellent live coverage on cyclingnews.com from those of us with no television. Floyd Landis rode his bike like a hero from the past; bicycle racing hasn’t seen anything like that since the eighties, some would say.
Landis was a renegade with his unconventional move, attacking with over 123 km to go and speeding away like a motorbike to the finish. On an extremely hot day, Landis was either pouring bottles of water on himself or consuming them — I stopped counting at seventy bottles. He powered up the epic climbs in his big chain ring, drilled it on the flats, and in the end, held a 5:42 gap over 2nd place Carlos Sastre.
A big break, big climbs, and a big gear makes Landis a true Viking. Few rides in recent Tour history compare: Chiappucci’s at Sestriere in ‘92, Jalabert on Bastille Day in ‘95, one of the early Lance mountain top victories are similar, but none dramatically changed the overall standings quite like Floyd’s ride of redemption. Sure there was Lemond’s increadible ride to win the Tour in ‘89, but that was more shocking than epic. One might have to go back further to the days of Bernard Hinault to find such aggression and willpower on the bike. A true champion overcomes adversity, and Floyd came back from a Tour ending deficit, and nearly climbed back to the yellow.
What happened the day before? Landis just had a bad day on stage 16 perhaps; he is only human after all — actually, he’s quite a bit above the regular human when it comes to power and endurance. But nevertheless, he mustered the courage and strength to pick himself back up and persevere in heroic fashion. Landis may support Nietzsche’s idea of a “superman” — can the superman in Landis change the tour into a victory for himself and team? We have only to wait until tomorrow.
-Skiles Keith