America Continues to Own France
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by user Christof
An American once again dominated the French. This time, the domination involves the Tour De France bicycling race.
For the eleventh time in the last twenty-one years, an American has taken home the yellow jersey for winning the annual Tour De France bicycling race. The Tour De France is considered the greatest bicycling race in the world. Held yearly in July, the race covers over two thousand miles in three weeks of racing.
The current American streak of domination is now up to eight years. No other country has won eight consecutive Tour De France races in the 103-year history of the race. Lance Armstrong won the last seven Tours, from 1999 to 2005.
Armstrong, however, hung up his wheels after his Tour victory in 2005. Hence, for the first time since 1998, there would be a new champion crowned in this year’s Tour. Well, this new champion is none other than Floyd Landis. Landis grew up in a Mennonite family in rural Lancaster County in Pennsylvania. Lancaster County is roughly a 90-minute ride west of Philadelphia.
This year’s Tour De France was a wild one from the start. Right before the race began, several of the contenders were tossed out of the race because of a doping probe in Spain. These contenders included Ivan Basso and Jan Ulrich. Several other contenders went down with injuries throughout the Tour.
And then you have Landis. He was considered the favorite to win the Tour at the beginning of the race. Landis, however, was hit by mechanical problems during the first two time trials of the race. He then took the lead in the Tour during the first set of mountain stages. This lead did not last long, for Landis and the rest of the Peloton allowed a near 30-minute break away to occur in a stage following the first set of mountains stages.
Landis was able to regain the yellow jersey after the first stage in the Alps. Again, this lead would not last. Stage 16 saw Landis crack on the last climb of the day. He lost over 10 minutes to the stage winner, and fell from first to eleventh overall in the standings. He was over 8 minutes behind the leader, and almost all, including this writer, thought he was done.
Landis, however, did not give up. Stage 17 was the last day in the Alps for this year’s Tour. Landis went on a solo breakaway very early in this mountain stage, something unheard of in the modern era of the Tour. By doing so, Landis won the stage by over seven minutes, which brought him within 30 seconds of the overall lead.
All of this set led to the Stage19 time trial becoming the determining factor as to who will win the Tour De France in 2006. Even though Landis finished third in this time trial, he did so substantially ahead time wise of the two racers, Oscar Pereiro and Carlos Sastre, who were in front of him in the overall general classification. Therefore, he earned the lead of the race and the right to wear the yellow jersey as the Tour headed into Paris.
Stage 20, the final stage of this year’s Tour, went off without a hitch. The ride into Paris was without incident. Floyd Landis is the winner of the 2006 Tour De France.
Landis joins Armstrong and Greg LeMond as the only Americans to ever win the Tour De France. What is ironic is that all three men have had serious health problems that they had to overcome to win a Tour De France. LeMond was seriously wounded in a hunting accident that left pellets embedded in his heart. This, however, did not stop LeMond from winning the Tour in 1989 and 1990. Armstrong came back from near-fatal cancer to win all seven of his Tours. Landis is facing hip-replacement surgery after this year’s Tour. (A practice crash has caused Landis to develop a Bo Jackson type of hip condition.)
Whether Landis will ever be able to compete in another Tour is yet to be determined. He is, however, the winner of the 2006 Tour De France! And with that, the American domination of France continues!
Date
Sun 07/23/06, 7:58 am EST
