MeyerBros

so i’ve been following the Tour de France every morning (it’s actually afternoon in France), and finally today Floyd Landis took the yellow jersey! that means he’s now 1st in the overall individual time classification after the 11th stage. today was the second mountain stage so far, and all of the favorites to win finally come to the front once they reach the mountains, which is exactly what Landis did. he’s well known as a top-notch bicycle sprinter and climber.

not like most people care, but Landis was born (and grew up) in Lancaster, PA in a conservative Mennonite family. his parents didn’t think bicycle racing would be an adequate profession, so he would ride at night after work, sometimes until 2 or 3 am. his family finally bought a TV in 2002 so they could watch him ride in his first Tour de France. he was on Lance Armstrong’s team for 3 years and helped Armstrong win the Tour each time. in 2005 he became the team leader of Phonak Hearing Systems, and he finished 9th in the 2005 Tour.

most of the riders who were supposedly going to be Landis’ main competition this year were suspended from the 2006 Tour because of their involvement in the Spanish Doping Scandal. most analysts say that Landis is favored to win this year.

i was cheering for him last year as well, so i’m really pumped that he achieved the maillot jaune today!

tomorrow’s stage finishes in Carcassonne. that makes me want to play games…

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 13th, 2006 at 8:00 pm by jonny and is filed under tour de france, sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.