Thursday, July 20, 2006
Floyd Landis!
The Tour de France is a great great sporting event. This year my man is Floyd Landis. We have a pool at work, 8 people picked a rider. I picked the Mennonite from Pennsylvania, Floyd Landis. He used to be Lance Armstrong's domestique on Team Postal. Now he is the captain of the the Phonak team.
As of two days ago he was sitting pretty good, in yellow, a few seconds ahead of Oscar Periero. But yesterday was a bad day. It was a bad day to have a bad day, the 2nd to the last stage in the Alps. Floyd bonked. He ran out of energy and lost 10 minutes on the field. 10 minutes on the field on the last 10 km of the race with only 1 mountain stage to go. He dropped from first to eleventh. Last night I watched it again, kinda like in "Being John Malkovich" I was telling myself "look away, look away!" But I couldn't look away. There was Floyd, head down, pedaling slowly, falling off the pace of the leaders, totally beaten. Average riders with no chance in the Tour were passing him on that final climb.
Today is another day though. The last day in the Alps, it was up and down mountains all day. Boy was it a different day for Floyd! I woke at 6:30 am to start to watch the race, and there Floyd is in a breakaway, already 9 minutes up on the field!!!!!!!! He's going over those hills like they aren't there. He is eating and drinking and pouring water on himself. He is trying to get rid of all the extra heat created by his massive engine inside. The TV shows he is generating 400 watts! More than 1/2 a horsepower! This guy is as strong as a small horse today! Of course the laws of thermodynamics say he can't get all the power into the wheels, he is generating heat and has a plan to get rid of it. Today he kept getting water from the team car and held water bottles in his hand while he rode and continuously doused himself. And kept churning those gears. It isn't like the other riders let him go either, the rest of the leaders were trying to catch him, but there was to be no catching Floyd Landis today.
In 2004 in a mountain stage, Floyd was on the team with Lance Armstrong, and Lance said, "do you want to win a stage?" and Floyd said, "yeah". And Lance said, "How fast can you go downhill?" and Floyd said, "I can go downhill really fast." Then Lance said, "Go like you stole something." That was then, and then Floyd didn't win that stage, and one of those guys chasing him today was also in that race from 2004, Andreas Kloden. Today Floyd basically eliminated Andreas Kloden. This race today ended with a 10 km decent. I can still hear Floyd saying, "I can go downhill really fast." He did, going downhill at speeds up to 60 mph, and when he hit the bottom and crossed the line, the clock started to tick off the time he needed to get back into this Tour de France. He went from rock bottom back to the top in one day. It was like Andy Dufresne holding his arms up in the air in Shawshank Redemption. Floyd put over 5 minutes on the nearest rival, and went from dead in the water to the man to beat. He isn't wearing yellow quite yet, he is 30 seconds behind Oscar Periero and 22 seconds behind Carlos Sastre. But there is one time trial coming Saturday, and Floyd's specialty is the time trial. In the last time trial he beat the only 2 guys left ahead of him by over 2 minutes. He may not win, but announcer Bob Roll said, "this is the best stage in the history of the Tour de France." I can't argue with that.
As of two days ago he was sitting pretty good, in yellow, a few seconds ahead of Oscar Periero. But yesterday was a bad day. It was a bad day to have a bad day, the 2nd to the last stage in the Alps. Floyd bonked. He ran out of energy and lost 10 minutes on the field. 10 minutes on the field on the last 10 km of the race with only 1 mountain stage to go. He dropped from first to eleventh. Last night I watched it again, kinda like in "Being John Malkovich" I was telling myself "look away, look away!" But I couldn't look away. There was Floyd, head down, pedaling slowly, falling off the pace of the leaders, totally beaten. Average riders with no chance in the Tour were passing him on that final climb.
Today is another day though. The last day in the Alps, it was up and down mountains all day. Boy was it a different day for Floyd! I woke at 6:30 am to start to watch the race, and there Floyd is in a breakaway, already 9 minutes up on the field!!!!!!!! He's going over those hills like they aren't there. He is eating and drinking and pouring water on himself. He is trying to get rid of all the extra heat created by his massive engine inside. The TV shows he is generating 400 watts! More than 1/2 a horsepower! This guy is as strong as a small horse today! Of course the laws of thermodynamics say he can't get all the power into the wheels, he is generating heat and has a plan to get rid of it. Today he kept getting water from the team car and held water bottles in his hand while he rode and continuously doused himself. And kept churning those gears. It isn't like the other riders let him go either, the rest of the leaders were trying to catch him, but there was to be no catching Floyd Landis today.
In 2004 in a mountain stage, Floyd was on the team with Lance Armstrong, and Lance said, "do you want to win a stage?" and Floyd said, "yeah". And Lance said, "How fast can you go downhill?" and Floyd said, "I can go downhill really fast." Then Lance said, "Go like you stole something." That was then, and then Floyd didn't win that stage, and one of those guys chasing him today was also in that race from 2004, Andreas Kloden. Today Floyd basically eliminated Andreas Kloden. This race today ended with a 10 km decent. I can still hear Floyd saying, "I can go downhill really fast." He did, going downhill at speeds up to 60 mph, and when he hit the bottom and crossed the line, the clock started to tick off the time he needed to get back into this Tour de France. He went from rock bottom back to the top in one day. It was like Andy Dufresne holding his arms up in the air in Shawshank Redemption. Floyd put over 5 minutes on the nearest rival, and went from dead in the water to the man to beat. He isn't wearing yellow quite yet, he is 30 seconds behind Oscar Periero and 22 seconds behind Carlos Sastre. But there is one time trial coming Saturday, and Floyd's specialty is the time trial. In the last time trial he beat the only 2 guys left ahead of him by over 2 minutes. He may not win, but announcer Bob Roll said, "this is the best stage in the history of the Tour de France." I can't argue with that.
