Friday, July 21, 2006

THE greatest comeback in sports




If you missed the Floyd Landis solo 80 mile attack (see image above) on Stage 17 of the Tour de France, you missed one of the greatest comebacks in sports history. After "cracking" (and I mean crack--even I could have beat him up the moutain) on stage 16 to La Toussuire Les Sybelles, Landis somehow mentally and physically recovered overnight, planning and then executing the ludicrous move of taking on the entire peloton all on his own with 80 miles of torturous climbs and dangerou descents ahead.

I'm in awe. Landis, in one day, gave us something Lance the invincible could not: the unexpected, the incomprehensible, from the dregs of defeat to the heights of winning. All of this and more was communicated in "the look"* he had on his face as he crossed the finish line and rose his fist in the air. It brought shivers down my spine: more than confident, more than jubilant, something special that only comes after facing head on despair and defeat only to defy all expectation the next day to conquer them both. His look wasn't about winning the stage but rather to say, "I'm back and I'm going to win this whole damn thing." This was confirmed in the post-race interview when asked if he was excited about today's stage win: "I don't care about that. I want to win the tour." Winning a single stage in the Tour de France is the highlight for many top cyclists; this was Landis' first stage win in the Tour but he did not even care.

Check out the last "real" stage, the time trial on Saturday. Landis must make up 30 seconds on the Yellow Jersey to win. Should be easy (he beat Peirero by 1:40 in the first time trial and he had a bike problem) but you never know in this post-Lance Tour era.

*inexplicably I can't find an image of him crossing the line--I was sure it would be front page.

2 comments:

middlebrow said...

I've actually gotten into the Tour this year, partly because Dr. Write and I are watching the cats of a couple who happen to have cable. Check out the profile of Floyd in the NYTimes Sports section. It's a great profile. Did you see his time trial today?

Dr. Write said...

His "greatest comeback" has been seriously compromised. And he _seemed_ like such a nice guy. "Nice guys don't dope!"