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89th Tour de France - Grand Tour
France, July 6-28, 2002
2002 Tour de France rider journals
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Floyd Landis
Nationality: American
Team: United States Postal Service
A strong climber and time trialist, 26 year old Landis, from Lancaster Co., PA, burst onto the road scene in 1999 in his rookie road year, wearing the Maillot Jaune and finishing third in the Tour de l'Avenir stage race, followed by 4th place in 2000. After an up and down 2001 season with Mercury, Landis has been a great addition to USPS in 2002, recently placing 2nd overall behind winner and team leader Lance Armstrong in the Dauphiné Libéré.
Stage 11 - Thursday July 18: Pau - La Mongie, 158km
A rough day
Today was a rough day for me. They tell me that everyone has an bad day at the Tour de France and today was mine. I had very bad legs today, right from the beginning of the stage. I thought I might make it over the first climb (Col d'Aubisque) but nothing doing. I came right off on the bottom, after 5km. It was all strung out and I came off a little too soon to make it back on the descent. But it wouldn't have mattered anyway since I would have been absolutely no value to anybody today. It's been taxing to try and get in the breaks all the time and my body wasn't ready for the mountains today.
Today the team did really well… Lance won the stage and took over the Yellow Jersey. That's great…and I'll be all right tomorrow.
Until Next Time
Floyd
