Tour GC favourite Floyd Landis will have to undergo a hip replacement after the Tour de France, as a result of a degenerative bone condition that started when he broke his hip three and a half years ago. On Sunday, Landis told Sam Abt of the New York Times that he has been in pain since he broke his hip while on a training ride in California in January 2003.
"If I hadn't had a bicycle-racing career, I would have had the hip replaced two years ago because I don't really want to deal with the pain," Landis said. "It's bad, it's grinding, it's bone rubbing on bone. Sometimes it's a sharp pain. When I pedal and walk, it comes and goes, but mostly it's an ache, like an arthritis pain. It aches down my leg into my knee. The morning is the best time, it doesn't hurt too much. But when I walk it hurts, when I ride it hurts. Most of the time it doesn't keep me awake, but there are nights that it does."
