My friend Freddy McGuire just pointed out that I needed to eat crow regarding my entry about Floyd Landis saying "goodbye to any hopes he had of inheriting the throne vacated by Lance Armstrong" after his meltdown in the Alps on July 19.
It wasn't like I didn't have company. No one -- except Landis, apparently -- gave him a chance to recover.
I missed the live coverage of the stage because I was out of town at a meeting. I planned to watch primetime coverage so even though I figured Landis was cooked, I still tried to avoid finding out what happened.
That plan got blown when I heard, on NPR of all places, this story teaser: "Floyd Landis has an amazing day in the Alps."
I still didn't think it would be THAT amazing. It really was one of the gutsiest, greatest individual performances in Tour history, and there have been plenty great rides in that event.
Clearly, Landis -- I'm not sure we can call him Floyd, ala Lance, just yet -- helped bring attention to a race that wasn't drawing that much excitement over here in the wake of Armstrong's retirement.
But what about next year?
Landis will have his hip replaced in the next couple of months. As tough as that dude is, it's hard to imagine that he will be able to defend his win next year. When he does come back it will probably be for his Swiss Phonak team, even though Armstrong has hinted that he'd love to bring him back to the Discovery Channel team.
The Discovery Channel team needs to do something because, even though it had a rider briefly in yellow and another win a stage, it was a disappointing Tour for them.
George Hincapie, who took over for Armstrong as the team's leader, wore yellow briefly. But he faded as the race wore on and showed he just isn't cut out to be a GC (general classification) contender. Which means I hope we get to see him putting more attention back toward the European spring classics, where he excels.
Discovery is reportedly recruiting American Levi Leipheimer, who has podium potential but must improve as a time trialist.
Rumors have also surfaced that Discovery might be pursuing Jan Ullrich, the German who never could quite beat Armstrong. Ullrich, who was out of this year's Tour because he is under investigation for doping, was recently fired by his T-Mobile team.
The team also has some other riders with potential.
Despite all of Ullrich's baggage, I like him. The guy is a fighter, and he's a character. Providing he survives this latest doping scandal and can stay out of trouble, he's the kind of guy who will command attention, even from -- or maybe especially from -- an American public that is still just learning about the nuances of bike racing.
No comments yet