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91st Tour de France - July 3-25, 2004
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Hangin’ In There: The Floyd Landis Tour Journal
During the Tour de France in 2002, Cyclingnews welcomed Floyd Landis as a reporter. The talented, gutsy, 28 year old former mountain biker had ridden his way to a start in the Tour as a key part of Lance Armstrong’s USPS squad, and Landis went on to distinguish himself as an important member of the now legendary “Blue Train” at Le Tour.
Floyd also endeared himself to Cyclingnews readers for his unique take on an American rookie’s life in the Tour De France peloton. 2004 has Floyd return with his exclusive journal “Hangin’ In There.”
180 Degree Turnaround
Tour de France, pre-race and prologue, July 1-4
Hi all my friends from Cyclingnews.com,
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We'll here it is; it's my third time riding the Tour De France and I'm really looking forward to it, especially after the situation of last year, when I was coming back from a broken hip. It's a completely different situation for me this year.
It was so stressful last year and I was always fighting to get in shape, while this year, I've been good right from the beginning of the year and I've never been concerned about it. Sure, my form goes up and down throughout the season, but I've been confident about it all year. Plus having done the Tour two times before has made me more relaxed than ever. All things considered, it's a 180 degree turnaround for me this year.
Last season, I did the Tour and the Vuelta and I think that was a good plan. I didn't race much in the spring, so I was fresh for the Tour and then the Vuelta was good so I didn't have a whole lot of hard training this winter and I hope to do the same thing this year. But let's see how the Tour De France goes first, since this is obviously the main focus for the year. There's no point thinking about after the Tour until the Tour itself is over. It's not going to be easy.
After the Dauphiné Libéré, I trained back in Spain for a two hard, long weeks. I was training with Lance in the mountains north of Gerona and then we did a training camp in the Pyrenees and checked out the Tour stages. Then the week before the Tour, there wasn't any time for training and not much time to rest either since it's always so hectic getting ready. Right after the Dauphiné, we heard about the new team sponsor for next season. Lance went back for a quick trip to the US and the announcement was held in Silver Spring, Maryland at Discovery Communications corporate headquarters.
We're really excited about this new team sponsor; it's good for cycling when a sponsor like Discovery Communications comes into the sport. And everybody in the team management is a lot more relaxed now going into the Tour; they don't have to worry about the sponsor search going into the race. I'm really hoping to be a part of Discovery Pro Cycling team next year.
So we got here on Wednesday evening and then on Thursday we did a two hour ride in the morning and then had our medical checks. They weigh you and do an EKG thing and a check your lung capacity. After that, Lance did a press conference. I guess you've heard about the Lance book by now. It's not against me, so it doesn't affect me, but there are always people who want to bring Lance down. I can't imagine anyone would write a book like this except for the money. I can't imagine what else it would be for. I can't read it because it's in French but I don't care. I wouldn't read it anyway. It's not for me and I don't who it's for. I heard that David Walsh, one of the authors was up in the press conference yesterday. Lance knew that was coming and was ready for the questions about the book and as I understand it, he wasn't caught off guard by that one.
On Friday we did a two hour ride on out TT bikes and it was really windy with rain that just came and went. Typical Belgian weather. Then we did the Tour Team Presentation on Friday night...it's good for the public and the press, just part of the show but I think a lot of riders would rather not be standing around before the race. But Saturday is only the prologue, so it's not too bad. We get back to the hotel late after a long evening but since everyone does the same thing there's nothing to complain about.
In the prologue I was 17th and I felt great. The conditions were perfect out there today...I felt great and it didn't rain so that was good too. I'm not exactly a prologue specialist but I was good on Saturday. Now we have the lead in team GC which would be nice to keep so we can start the TTT last.
So today is the 4th of July so I want to say hi to my wife Amber and my daughter Ryan back in California. They are probably going water skiing with some friends so I hope they have fun. Me, I'll be riding my bike from Liege to Charleroi in Belgium today and you know why.
Until next time,
Floyd