Bad Day at the Tour

I haven’t been able to follow the Tour as closely as I would like the last week due to work constraints, a trip over the weekend, and preparing for my gig tomorrow night. But Floyd Landis lost the yellow jersey by a lot today. I’m sure you can google it or go to http://velonews.com to check out the details.

I’ve liked Floyd since I found out he had made it into the pro peleton some years ago. He grew up in Lancaster, just down the road from me, racing many of the same races I did (but in much higher categories).

But if you want to know the main reason I’ve like Floyd so much, especially since he took yellow in this year’s tour, just watch his response to questions about his bad day today.

I’ve recently had two conversations about how bike racing culture is elitist and rude. It wasn’t always that way, in fact I noticed the trend myself towards the end of my “career” in 1996/1997. I remember the early days (for me, the early 90’s) of camaraderie, deep friendships, and a focus on the aesthetic and serendipity of riding a bicycle.

To me, and this is just MHO, Lance represented more of the former. Floyd embodies the latter. That makes me happy. I’m not at all sure it’s total coincidence that I’ve gotten back on the bike the year after Lance retired, and that messenger culture is making a comeback too.

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