Racing rebel
PLA-DE-BERET, Spain — Floyd Landis says he was too high-strung for his Mennonite upbringing. But being a rebel has its rewards.
The Lancaster County, Pa., native overcame a deficit of nearly 5 minutes Thursday to seize the Tour de France lead, posting a strong performance in the harder of two days of punishing climbs in the Pyrenees.
By claiming the leader's yellow jersey that was taken home seven straight years by Lance Armstrong — a former teammate, and then a rival — Landis made it clear that he's the man to beat in this year's race.
And he's not even in top physical shape.
Landis said Monday he is considering whether to have surgery this fall to replace his right hip, which was fractured in a 2003 crash. The resulting pain has been bothering him more and more, he said.
Capturing the lead in the three-week race wasn't his aim on Thursday. Landis said his real goal is to be wearing the prized yellow shirt at the finish of the three-week race in Paris on July 23.
"It's my dream, and whatever I have deal with to get there, I think, is worth it," said Landis, when asked about how he presses on despite the arthritic hip.
The ailment could mean trouble later in the race. But he said the condition tends to degrade slowly, and is rarely a "catastrophic failure" from one day to the next.
"So it's unlikely at this point that it will be so much of a problem that it will affect the race," Landis said. After the Tour, he could have it replaced "because I am getting tired of dealing with it."
Thursday's 11th stage featured the historic Tourmalet pass and an uphill finish among five grueling climbs along the 128-mile ride from Tarbes, France, to Pla-de-Beret ski station in Spain.
The 30-year-old Landis grew up in a pious Mennonite family with six children that didn't always approve of the biking he first took up seriously as a teenager.
"For a while, they weren't so happy about it, but they've adjusted — I think," he said. Mennonites "tend to stay away from professional sports and being generally famous," he added.
"I happened to be a little bit high-strung for that lifestyle."
Phonak team leader Landis grabbed the lead from Cyril Dessel, who became the first Frenchman to wear yellow since 2004 by escaping the pack in Wednesday's stage through two Pyrenean climbs.
Landis has eight seconds on now second-placed Dessel, a relatively unheralded rider who is not considered a prime contender for overall Tour victory.
