Because no one, meaning me, can figure out what time zone New Zealand is in this may seem confusing but after today’s completed stage 3 in the Tour of the Southland Floyd Landis stands in 35th place. You can read results and commentary on the stage here on the official tour website.
Here is where you can find information on tomorrow’s or tonight’s, stage 4 which sounds perfect as it is sponsored by Pub Charity Inc. Please check back tomorrow as stage 4 results will be posted.
In other news, after reading the fine Floyd Landis interview done by MIchael Brown Twisted Spoke has some sage advice for Floyd (just in case he does want to get back to the Tour some day):
Start smoking Gauloise cigarettes like the great stars of the 6o’s and 70’s — whoever they are. Jean Gabin, you know. Yes, this is bad for training in the short term but good in the long term. Don’t inhale, for god-sakes.
Read up on French existentialist novels, a little Andre Gide, Albert Camus. Be able to quote a few lines from de Maupassant, Flaubert and Baudelaire. Crap like that.
Buy the complete Rosetta Stone learning French DVD’s. Take a freaking page from Lance Armstrong, will ya? A few honestly mangled statements in French will go a long way to erase the Hawthorne-ish red D for blood Doping etched on your forehead. Just a thought.
Still, there are some who feel Floyd has no right to complain, even though we still (for now) espouse the concept of free speech in the US. Read through the VeloNews mailbag to see Ian Hamilton’s scathing repudiation of Floyd’s lamentation about no more Tours de France. Hmmm, maybe freedom of speech is an issue in Quebec? And please somebody keep ME from writing the VeloNews in response!
The GOOD news is that Floyd says he is enjoying himself very much down there and that the people are treating him very well. He joked he might even stay!
I understand that sentiment about staying in New Zealand. I’ve heard the same thing from a number of folks (my dad, included) who have visited New Zealand over the years.
Rant, I think that is so cool the way the team got him to ride. I wish I had that email so I could tell him, how much I support him and have faith in him!!!
Whatever makes him happy and helps him deal with the crazy world of cycling, I’m all for it!!!
I think you should respond to that “letter” in the VN mailbag..stuff like that makes me want to throw something, at the person saying it!!! But that just shows childishness behavior and doesn’t solve anything. Darn.
Good God, Strbuk!! You wrote this!!! I really pay attention….
What’s the free speech problem? Sure Floyd is free to say that he believes that it’s just internal politics keeping him out of the Tour. And the rest of us are equally free to say that we believe that the real reason is that he’s a lying, cheating douche-bag who still hasn’t had the guts to come clean.
Jim,
True enough, we’re all free to speak from different points of view. But just so you know, we like to keep the discussion a little more civil around here, rather than resorting to calling someone we don’t like a “douche-bag.” In my experience, conversations usually begin to deteriorate once terms like that start being bandied about. If you’d said he was “a lying cheater who still hasn’t had the guts to come clean” it would have made the same point just as well.
I do believe that Floyd is right by saying politics keep him out of TDF.
Of course, if he would be the friend of Sarkozy, he could have had some support to remove Clerc of ASO, and to welcome some tainted old riders.
But he need to come-back at a decent riding level, without drugs, that is longer than hoped. At least, Floyd does it right now. More power for him, even if he doesn’t want to say the truth.