moving up
06-29-2005, 09:51 AM
Floyd Landis: Discovery Defector
Floyd Landis has left the Lance Armstrong fold, picked up by Phonak in 2005 to pursue his own Tour de France ambitions. Can Floyd land the world's toughest bike race? Rendez-vous in Paris on July 24 for the answer -- but in the meantime, we have just two words of warning: Roberto Heras.
Discovery Channel: Armstrong's Armada
Landis: Phonak are the best
EXCLUSIVE! Armstrong interview
DAUPHINE: Lance prepares for final Tour
In 2004, Heras -- like Tyler Hamilton and Kevin Livingston before him -- considered his U.S. Postal dues paid in full. The Spaniard inked a deal with Liberty Seguros, which proudly touted the three-time Vuelta a Espana winner as the contender for booting Armstrong off his then five-year Tour de France throne.
Instead, Heras was a Tour de France afterthought, flummoxed off the back before abandoning last year's race in the Pyrenees.
In theory, riders like Heras and Landis should be pure poison to Armstrong's Discovery Channel team. After years spent at the nucleus of the American team (previously U.S. Postal), they know the ins-and-outs of Armstrong's operations; how the American builds his annual Tour de France offensive and where the cracks in his race armour might surface.
But there in lies the rub: The eight other men that bolster Armstrong on the Discovery Channel Tour squad are handpicked for one reason: To sacrifice themselves to loft their leader to yet another yellow jersey.
No other team leader -- except maybe T-Mobile's Jan Ullrich -- benefits from such altruism.
Phonak is putting its overall Tour de France eggs in Floyd Landis' basket, but even the American admits that the team speaks of its general-classification chances in the conditional.
"Our objective will be a good place in the overall, but we'll see. Sometimes things change," Landis told Eurosport.
"If it doesn't go exactly as planned maybe we'll focus on stage wins. But to start, our goal is the overall."
Those, of course, are tempered words, far from the bravado of the Discovery Channel team, whose message is ironclad: The yellow jersey or bust.
"WE'RE BETTER THAN DISCOVERY"
Dark horse he may be, but Landis could be a catalyst at the 2005 race. He has the climbing and time-trial ability to match (if not beat) the best, and a Phonak team he qualifies as "better than Discovery Channel" in the team time-trial discipline.
"In the team time-trial it's important to have guys who can crank out big pulls, guys who are bigger in size," Landis said.
"Physically, we're bigger than Discovery -- who count on small, climber types -- so in my opinion we have a better chance in the team time-trial."
The race-against-the-clock by teams comes on the 2005 race's third day. It's a lung-busting exercise, which could yield a stage win for Phonak -- but it's not going to put much of an overall cushion between Landis and Armstrong.
To believe in overall victory, Landis has to believe that Armstrong can be beaten.
Landis does give credence to a possible Armstrong crumpling, but not for the right reasons.
"Every year Armstrong is beatable because in three weeks anyone can have bad luck. Things can change. People can get sick," Landis said.
Read between the lines and Landis' conviction is clear: I can win, but only if the race -- and lady luck -- beat up on Armstrong first.
All things equal -- and we're sorry, but they just aren't -- there's still just one American at the Tour de France: Lance Armstrong.
For six years running this has been a given; a common Tour de France denominator that Landis won't dispute.
"I can climb and I can time-trial. The Tour suits me well," says Landis.
"But where Lance is concerned, when he decides he has a goal and an objective, he doesn't deviate."
"From what I know about Lance, he won't go to the Tour to get beaten."
Floyd Landis has left the Lance Armstrong fold, picked up by Phonak in 2005 to pursue his own Tour de France ambitions. Can Floyd land the world's toughest bike race? Rendez-vous in Paris on July 24 for the answer -- but in the meantime, we have just two words of warning: Roberto Heras.
Discovery Channel: Armstrong's Armada
Landis: Phonak are the best
EXCLUSIVE! Armstrong interview
DAUPHINE: Lance prepares for final Tour
In 2004, Heras -- like Tyler Hamilton and Kevin Livingston before him -- considered his U.S. Postal dues paid in full. The Spaniard inked a deal with Liberty Seguros, which proudly touted the three-time Vuelta a Espana winner as the contender for booting Armstrong off his then five-year Tour de France throne.
Instead, Heras was a Tour de France afterthought, flummoxed off the back before abandoning last year's race in the Pyrenees.
In theory, riders like Heras and Landis should be pure poison to Armstrong's Discovery Channel team. After years spent at the nucleus of the American team (previously U.S. Postal), they know the ins-and-outs of Armstrong's operations; how the American builds his annual Tour de France offensive and where the cracks in his race armour might surface.
But there in lies the rub: The eight other men that bolster Armstrong on the Discovery Channel Tour squad are handpicked for one reason: To sacrifice themselves to loft their leader to yet another yellow jersey.
No other team leader -- except maybe T-Mobile's Jan Ullrich -- benefits from such altruism.
Phonak is putting its overall Tour de France eggs in Floyd Landis' basket, but even the American admits that the team speaks of its general-classification chances in the conditional.
"Our objective will be a good place in the overall, but we'll see. Sometimes things change," Landis told Eurosport.
"If it doesn't go exactly as planned maybe we'll focus on stage wins. But to start, our goal is the overall."
Those, of course, are tempered words, far from the bravado of the Discovery Channel team, whose message is ironclad: The yellow jersey or bust.
"WE'RE BETTER THAN DISCOVERY"
Dark horse he may be, but Landis could be a catalyst at the 2005 race. He has the climbing and time-trial ability to match (if not beat) the best, and a Phonak team he qualifies as "better than Discovery Channel" in the team time-trial discipline.
"In the team time-trial it's important to have guys who can crank out big pulls, guys who are bigger in size," Landis said.
"Physically, we're bigger than Discovery -- who count on small, climber types -- so in my opinion we have a better chance in the team time-trial."
The race-against-the-clock by teams comes on the 2005 race's third day. It's a lung-busting exercise, which could yield a stage win for Phonak -- but it's not going to put much of an overall cushion between Landis and Armstrong.
To believe in overall victory, Landis has to believe that Armstrong can be beaten.
Landis does give credence to a possible Armstrong crumpling, but not for the right reasons.
"Every year Armstrong is beatable because in three weeks anyone can have bad luck. Things can change. People can get sick," Landis said.
Read between the lines and Landis' conviction is clear: I can win, but only if the race -- and lady luck -- beat up on Armstrong first.
All things equal -- and we're sorry, but they just aren't -- there's still just one American at the Tour de France: Lance Armstrong.
For six years running this has been a given; a common Tour de France denominator that Landis won't dispute.
"I can climb and I can time-trial. The Tour suits me well," says Landis.
"But where Lance is concerned, when he decides he has a goal and an objective, he doesn't deviate."
"From what I know about Lance, he won't go to the Tour to get beaten."