castaway

There's an old English proverb that goes "It is no shame to fall but to lie long."
I was reminded of it by this Landis quote which appeared in an on-line AP story:
"I was very, very disappointed...for a little while."
I guess this mentality is what the astronauts call the "Right Stuff."
Good luck, Floyd!

rebaths

You know what.... I really, really like Landis. I admit I didn't know much about him before the tour, but now I would consider him of the highest class of any athlete, given everything I've learned about him. I respect him much more than Lance. Floyd seems so genuine, so humble and so laid back--until it's time to ride. Then he gets down to the order of the day and, he accepts responsibility for what happens, win or lose.

Lance was always about business, always about the sponsors and suing trashtalkers and seemed so serious all the time. Landis is about riding his bike, fast. It's like Lance lived and breathed the tour. It was his life. It's Floyd's life too, but he seems to realize there is more to life than winning the tour. It might just be me, but that attitude seems to exude from Landis, and I can't help but hold him in the highest of regards.

I sure do hope he kicks butt in the TT, and I hope his surgery goes well and he can come back stronger and faster!

GO FLANDIS!

EGreen

You and me both. I'm a huge fan of the man and in awe of what he accomplished yesterday. For me it was the greatest dig down deep effort since Diego Corrales came to life and knocked out Jose Castillo in the 10th round of their first bout when he was to all appearances thoroughly beaten, depleted and ready to go down for good.

Guest

He sure does have a thing for cracking open a beer! I made a pact with my friend at work- if Floyd wins, we're sending him a case of Amstel and telling him his next ride is on us, so go relax and pop a beer!

We're totally serious.

Koffee

khuon

Landis reminds me of a young Armstrong. I remember back in the early 1990s shortly after Armstrong got the title of US National Amateur Champion, Bicycling interviewed him. It was conducted at a Starbucks coffee shop and Lance was saying things like how he basically didn't have a training regimin. He just rode his bike (he rode to that interview) and ate what he wanted. Flash forward to around 2002 and there's an interview with Landis (also by Bicycling as I recall). Smack dab in the middle of the article is a picture of Landis doing a wheelie on his Trek OCLV roadbike. And while Lance was busy with his rising popularity, weighing his food and obsessivelly consumed with every detail of his bike, US Postal was at the time grooming Floyd to be Lance's successor. I also seem to recall some comments about how he was still rough around the edges but coming around. Apparently, Landis did not take to the culture of USPS/Discovery and decided to seek out a different team.

Chongo

Just make sure that the Amstels aren't contaminated with kryptonite. I think that's what happened to him on stage 16; kryptonite got into his water bottle.

* jack *

Guest

I was thinking about that- if he wins, I wonder if he'd do a wheelie into Paris at some point?

Koffee

Smoothie104

I saw him over rotate and bail once trying to do that as well.

khuon

Popping wheelies, pulling manuals, bunnyhopping, using a lot of bike/body-english, maintaining aggressive downhill twisting descent lines, etc... One really nice thing that's come out as of late (at least in the past few years) from the announcers of the TdF is that they're giving some cred to the skills obtained through MTBing and the benefits of bike-handling. This makes me happy.

Braveheart

I'd like to see him try that wheelie with that hip of his. Boy I hope that he comes back for more after surgery.

khuon

Maybe if we're lucky, he'll tabletop the podium.

USAZorro

After he gets to the last 3 KM, it would be safe to do it.

flythebike

Great quote. Yeah losing is bad, but quitting is worse...

Astronauts didn't have the Right Stuff. Pilots did. Astronauts were/are just 'Spam in a can." The only pilot is the person that lands the Space Shuttle.

Corsaire

Something I particularly noticed (great at that) was the change of LOOK, did anybody notice this too?
Before Stage 17, Floyd had a kind of laid back, "nice guy" look after each stage, but after that crumbling stage he got "the eye of the tiger", that killer look, oh man, oh man he was a different rider, the one who takes the "bull by the horns", so to speak. He had to go thru that stage to get the LOOK.

Corsaire

flythebike

Either that or he took some synthetic testosterone.