THE chaotic 2006 Tour de France got the champion it deserved yesterday, as Floyd Landis stepped from his bike on the Champs Elysées to become the third American winner of the three-week race. Twenty years after Greg LeMond’s first victory, Landis joined the Nevadan and Lance Armstrong, the Texan, as winner of the
maillot jaune.
The trio have in common their triumphs over adversity: LeMond won two of his three Tours after a near-fatal hunting accident, Armstrong famously survived testicular cancer to win seven times before retiring after last year’s victory and Landis, born into the obscure Mennonite religion, has won his first Tour, despite competing with a shattered hip joint.
Yet the Pennsylvanian, his racing style as cryptic as his final press conference, may not be able to defend his title when next year’s Tour starts in London. The 30-year-old is due to have his hip replacement operation within two months, but is determined to return to the Tour within two years.
If that makes his success all the more remarkable, his 130-kilometre solo attack through the Alps to Morzine, which took him to the brink of victory, has become the stuff of legend — and fierce speculation. Given that he appeared close to collapse the previous evening, his overnight recovery was among the most spectacular in the Tour’s history.
On Saturday, after finally and decisively lifting the yellow jersey from the shoulders of Oscar Pereiro, of Spain, Landis remained vague as to how that recovery had been achieved. “I needed to get eight minutes back, so I got angry,” he said. “I don’t pretend to know much about what’s going on, but my parents taught me that hard work and patience were the most important things. It took me a long time to learn that, but I think patience and persistence were key to my success.”
In fact, Landis’s win was something of an old pals act. On the morning of his extraordinary attack to Morzine, his team manager, John Lelangue, took a phone call from his father, Bob, now driver to Jean-Marie Leblanc, the Tour director, and a former key team-mate to Eddy Merkcx.
Lelangue Sr and, later the same morning, Merckx himself exhorted Landis to go on the offensive. “My father said that we had to attack,” John Lelangue said. “We had nothing to lose. To finish sixth or 26th — it’s the same. Merckx called and agreed, so we decided to do it.”
But Landis’s destiny may have been decided even before the Tour began when the pre-race favourites, Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, were suspended by their teams because of their involvement in the Operación Puerto doping investigation. Despite Armstrong, Landis’s mentor and former team captain, describing Operación Puerto as “probably the biggest scandal since the Festina Affair”, the new champion had no comment. “I don’t know anything about that,” he said.
Pressed on the issue, Landis grew irritable. “Look, as you keep asking, I’ll say that it was an unfortunate situation and none of us got any satisfaction out of the fact that they weren’t here — got any questions about anything else?” he said. In a sense, the Pennsylvanian’s success was the perfect bookend to a race that began with the worst doping scandal in a decade and ended with ambivalent statements from the new champion on cycling’s credibility. Landis, it appears, in contrast with Bradley Wiggins, of Great Britain, will not be one to rock the boat.
“There is no leader in the peloton that everyone respects,” Wiggins, who, with compatriot David Millar, yesterday finished in Paris, said. “We were getting that way with Basso, but he’s lost all the respect he had now.”
Wiggins said that he “really does not know” about the levels of cheating in this year’s Tour. “It’s always been a part of the pro game,” the Olympic champion said. “You either dwell on it and get depressed or do the best you can do. That’s what I did for the Olympic Games and it’s what I have always done.”
Wiggins has qualities that set him apart from his peers. “I’m patriotic and I enjoy living in England,” he said. “I’d never want my son to go to school and have his friends read that his dad has tested positive. When I finish cycling after London 2012, there will be more things in my life than what I have done as a cyclist.
“I feel part of the Tour but my life doesn’t depend on it. If I had to stop tomorrow, I’d be happy with what I’d achieved. I’m not prepared to do things that will risk my reputation as an athlete and my family’s reputation, too,” Wiggins said.
Yesterday’s final stage, over 154.5 kilometres from Sceaux-Antony to the Champs Elysées, was won in a sprint finish by Thor Hushovd, of Norway, also winner of the Tour’s opening stage, the prologue time-trial, in Strasbourg.
FINAL PLACINGS ON THE TOUR
Nineteenth stage (Le Creusot to Montceau-les-Mines, 57km): 1, S Gonchar (Ukr, T-Mobile) 1hr 7min 45sec; 2, A Klöden (Ger, T-Mobile) at 41sec behind; 3, F Landis (US, Phonak) at 1min 11sec behind; 4, O Pereiro (Sp, Caisse d’Epargne) 2:40; 5, S Lang (Ger, Gerolsteiner) 3:18; 6, D Zabriskie (US, Team CSC) 3:35; 7, V Ekimov (Russ, Discovery Channel) 3:41; 8, C Evans (Aus, Davitamon-Lotto); 9, B Grabsch (Ger, Phonak) 3:43; 10, D Cunego (It, Lampre-Fondital) 3:44.
Final stage (Antony to Paris, 154km): 1, T Hushovd (Nor, Crédit Agricole) 3.56.52; 2, R McEwen (Aus, Davitamon-Lotto); 3, S O'Grady (Aus, Team CSC); 4, E Zabel (Ger, Milram); 5, L Paolini (It, Liquigas); 6, S Dumoulin (Fr, AG2R-Prevoyance); 7, B Eisel (Austria, Française des jeux); 8, A Geslin (Fr, Bouygues Telecom); 9, A Ballan (It, Lampre-Fondital); 10, P Wrolich (Austria, Gerolsteiner) all at same time.
Leading final overall positions: 1, Landis 89:39:30; 2, Pereiro at 57sec behind; 3, Klöden 1:29; 4, C Sastre (Sp, Team CSC) 3:13; 5, Evans 5:08; 6, D Menchov (Russ, Rabobank) 7:06; 7, C Dessel (Fr, AG2R) 8:41; 8, C Moreau (Fr, AG2R) 9:37; 9, H Zubeldia (Sp, Euskaltel) 12:05; 10, M Rogers (Aus, T-Mobile) 15:07. British: 59, D Millar (Saunier Duval) at 2hr 4min 10sec behind; 124, B Wiggins (Cofidis) 3:25:32. Points: 1, McEwen 288pts; 2, Zabel 199; 3, Hushovd 195; 4, Eisel 176; 5, Paolini 174. King of the mountains: 1, M Rasmussen (Den, Rabobank) 166; 2, Landis 131; 3, D De la Fuente (Sp, Saunier Duval) 113. Young rider: 1, Cunego 89:58:49. Teams: 1, T-Mobile Team 269:08:46; 2, Team CSC at 17min 4sec behind; 3, Rabobank 23:26.
