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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.”
It's a team win
Stage 4 - July 7: Cambrai - Arras TTT, 64.5 km
Stage 5 - July 8: Amiens - Chartres, 200.5km
Hi everybody,
It was great to win the team time trial Wednesday; man our team was great! We rode really well; everyone was so focused. The conditions were dangerous with all the wind and rain but because of the new rules our team knew we could only gain or lose so much time. We were really careful in all the turns and then went hard in middle part. It was the first time I actually enjoyed the last 5km of a time trial; we knew we couldn't get more time so we backed off.
Usually this event really favors the bigger guys like George and Eki but everybody rode well. Lance was the strongest the team time trial; he was taking some huge pulls. The smaller guys like Azevedo and Beltran were just pulling through and making sure the speed didn't drop. Benjamin Noval dropped off after the first time check; he had crashed hard the day before and was hurting. He was upset afterwards but Lance tried to make him feel better afterwards.
It was lousy weather again Thursday on the stage to Chartres. I guess the only good thing is that it's the same for everybody. When the break went and got that big gap, we rode tempo to keep them from getting more than 15 minutes.
Johan was telling us on the radio to keep it up and it was the last work we would have to do for a week. After the break went, it wasn't really too nervous. Fassa Bortolo went really, really hard the first day and since then it's burned out a lot of guys. I noticed a lot of guys are already real tired; there was a split in the field from the wind about halfway through. I did a lot of work on the front and it was really good; we were all sharing it. A Domina guy was helping us ride tempo; I don't know why exactly but we'll take all the volunteer help we can get. My roomate Jose Azevedo, Chechu Rubiera and Trikki Beltran crashed halfway through the stage; Jose is okay and Chechu and Trikki too; they're tough.
So now what I think will happen is that Brioches will defend the Yellow Jersey, but who knows what will really happen since it's the Tour. I saw those guys the Cutters and they were pretty funny; otherwise I've been staying in the bus at the starts because of the bad weather. Friday's weather forecast is for more of the same; cold, rain and lot of wind. Man, I'd just like to see the sun and have some warm weather for a change.
OK, thanks for reading and I've got to go to dinner now. Chef Willi is taking care of us; we're having some pasta and he also prepared barley for a change and some turkey.
Until Next Time
Floyd