After placing third in today's 11th stage to Pla-de-Beret, Floyd Landis became the fifth American to...
Floyd Landis (Phonak) (Image credit: Sirotti)
The time has come
After placing third in today's 11th stage to Pla-de-Beret, Floyd Landis became the fifth American to don the maillot jaune. And despite needing a new hip, he is still the man many pick to win the Tour de France, as Hedwig Kröner reports.
Q: You've never won a stage at the Tour. How important is that to you now that you have the yellow jersey?
FL: Well, the goal for our team since the start was to win the yellow jersey, so... if we do that without winning stages, I guess that would be fine. It's always nice to be able to win a stage but today there was more value in working on the last climb and try to get some time on the other guys who were dropped. So it was not my objective.
Q: Would it be correct to say that your team worked well during the first climb, and that you sort of gave them the last climb off?
FL: The same thing than yesterday. We told most of the guys that it wasn't necessary to have the whole team there with me, even one guy would be enough. Probably some people misjudged the strength of our team to think that they're all bad; today we gambled a little. A couple of teams were very confident and did most of the work for us. Probably we can't expect that to happen anymore, but we take it.
Q: What are your emotions in this Tour, given the hip problems you're experiencing? You said the other day that you didn't want to miss anything?
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FL: I said I didn't want to miss anything in this Tour; what I was referring to was that when I found out about my condition a year and a half ago, I was told that my career won't go on forever. I should have been aware of that anyway, but it made me think about it more. Since then, I see things a little differently... I'm honoured to be sitting here.
