Floyd or Lance

Let me say, first of all, my favorite sport hero of the first 43 years of my life is Lance Armstrong. I liked him before his cancer but so much more so after, especially when he started shoving his damaged thing up the rear ends of the French. Now I love France and most French people are really good folks, just as good as any American. Unfortunately, the French have their own group of a-holes, similar to W., Rush Limberger and O'Reilly that deserve to be taken behind the woodshed and beaten silly. The French writers, especially the jackasses from L'Equipe, seem to get on someone and be unable to accept truth or let it go. So it was a pleasure to watch Lance kick everyone's butt up L'Alpe d'Huez and then shove his silver bowl up the butts of Jean Marie LeBlanc and the French press.

I also liked Floyd when he was on US Postal and hoped that he would wait for Lance to retire instead of taking the money and running to Phonak. I went into this year's TDF rooting first for Hincapie, who I thought could not win, Popovych, Acevedo and Salvodelli. When Basso and Ullrich were chucked out of the race, I entertained about 30 seconds hope that Hincapie or one of the other Disco boys could win. But I was afraid that George's crash and collarbone break in Paris-Roubaix would really prevent him from being a factor in the TDF. Boy was I right.

Now aside from Disco, the rider I most hoped would win was goofy looking old Floyd Landis. First of all, he was clearly the toughest American in the race, but more importantly, I like him. I thought I was right on after L'Alpe d'Huez but then when he cracked on La Toussuire, I, like the rest of the world, wrote him off. I mean here is a guy riding on one leg in the absolutely toughest sporting event in the world and he just shat all over the mountain. He was out of the race and everyone except one guy knew that to be the case. It was the next day that really made him a true American hero in the mold of Hank Aaron, Lance Armstrong and Greg LeMonde. It's one thing to be Jordan or Bonds and make the most of talent. Overcoming racism, cancer and being shot nearly to death is truly what makes a hero who transcends his sport (or any other activity). While his accomplishment may not be quite up there with Aaron, LeMonde and Lance, it certainly comes close. Single guy against the peleton, riding with one leg, day after nearly falling off his bike and out of the race ready to have a hip replacement at the end of the race and he goes off and wins the race in a really sick manner.

I understand biking pretty well and here is the story for those uneducated in biking. When Floyd cracked and was eight minutes down, he was essentially six feet under with several of scoops of dirt already on top of his coffin. In bike racing, you cannot come back from that kind of deficit in one day when the rest of the 145 or so riders in the race know you are for real. And they still knew Floyd was for real, they just screwed up and failed to keep him out of the first break. Now whether it was the rest of the contenders being tired from spanking Floyd the prior day or just the main contenders' teams being completely asleep at the wheel, Floyd's ride may have been, as Bob Role, OLN commentator and former TDF rider, "the greatest single day bike ride in the modern era of the TDF". What was truly special was his ability to keep his leading time gap even when the other 145 riders were trying their darndest to catch him. On reflection, Role may be right, although Lance's ride up the Col de Tourmalet in 2003 (remember Phil Ligget's comment that he "nearly lost his manhood" or what was left of it on the top tube of his bike) was a close second or maybe as good. As far as I am concerned, the team directors of T-Mobile, CSC and Illes Balears should be fired for not instructing their teams to chase Floyd down. But it is what it is and now he is ensconced in our memories as a real American hero.

Now, just today, comes news that someone high up in Le Tour may have been doping and the speculation as of midnight, CDT, is that is might be Floyd. I sure hope not. I could not see him doing it nor could I imagine him cracking the way he did if he was on the juice. Time will tell and just like I have done for Lance through the years, I will only believe he is dirty if the evidence is incontrovertible. Sometimes I think they mess with the tests or have bad testing protocol when these unexpected positives show up. So we shall see.

At the end of the day, I still go with Lance because he was dead, for all intents and purposes, and he truly rose like the Phoenix and did it for seven straight years. Floyd only has one and can never get more than one or two more before he is too old. Plus a bad hip ain't dead, no matter how you spin it. But if Lance stays retired, and it certainly appears he will remain so, Floyd is a pretty good guy to root for going forward.