Tour de Georgia race leader Floyd Landis entered the press conference in Dahlonega on Thursday surprised to find his biggest fans in the audience. Just behind the reporters sat six members of his family including his mother Arlene Landis. Cyclingnews' Kirsten Robbins had a chat with Floyd's proud mother.
"We usually come to watch Floyd at his races when he is in the U.S." said Arlene Landis. "The Tour de Georgia is our favorite race to watch because we can drive here as a family to watch the race."
Arlene Landis is from Lancaster, Pennsylvania where the family frequently supported Landis in Philadelphia's USPRO Championships. "We used to go and watch the race in Philadelphia every year but when Floyd out-grew that race we stopped going there."
The Landis family was sighted at the Tour of California this February where he won the yellow jersey. "We went to see Floyd in California and we were so happy to watch him there. But Georgia is still our favorite race in the U.S. because it is so close to home."
Floyd's mother arrived at the Tour de Georgia the morning of the time trial. "I have not been here for the entire race," said Arlene. "I just got here in time to see Floyd win the time trial. When Floyd does well we love to read about him in all of the magazines. Every time we see an article about him we keep it. Now we have a nice collection of stories about Floyd kept from over the years." "Floyd began cycling when he was a younger because we did a lot of cycling as a family especially on Sundays. But, he really liked to mountain bike more when he was younger," Arlene reminisced. " Now that Floyd has become really strong we have less opportunities to see him even when he is not racing. He comes home to visit for a few weeks each year especially for Thanksgiving and that is a special time of year for all of us."
