From Neil Rogers at Velonews:

Digging for nuggets in my Tour de France notes, I found a few gems from the always-frank Floyd Landis that didn’t make it into my feature on the Phonak rider in our current Tour de France issue.

My interview with Landis was conducted jointly with a correspondent for the European version of Time magazine. While I was primarily concerned with finding out about Floyd’s first Tour experience, invariably, certain lines of questioning concerned his relationship with his former U.S. Postal Service boss, Lance Armstrong.

And indeed, later on during the Tour, Landis was quoted in L’Equipe as saying, “I will always remember the 2003 Tour, it was the only time that people thought [Armstrong] could lose. Everyone around him was concerned, even us, his teammates. But the most surprising thing was that he didn’t show anything. I will always remember that he directed the other riders around like the boss of a company. For him, the race was business and he was the boss. . . .

“In some teams they often talk about their friendship, but in a team like that with someone who behaves as if he really is the boss, I don’t think you can go that far in talking about friendship. In everyday life it’s hard to be friends with your boss. I don’t believe that Lance has ever had that kind of friendship with any of his teammates, even with George Hincapie, whom he has known since he was 17. Friendship can’t exist when you give orders and direct others. It’s not necessarily a negative thing. It’s by acting in this way that Lance has been able to win the Tour so often.”

Nothing shocking there, to be sure, but some suggested that the comments made by Landis to L’Equipe about the uneasy climate at U.S. Postal during his tenure there might have spurred Armstrong to drive a select group over the St. Ferréol climb in the final kilometers of stage 17, knowing that Landis had missed the split. Landis lost 20 seconds on the day, dropping 15 seconds behind Alexander Vinokourov in the overall standings to ninth.

For a few more insights into Landis’s perspective on Armstrong’s inner orbit, read on:

Q: Do you ever have any moments at this Tour where you look over at the Discovery team, lined up at the front of the peloton working for Lance, and think you’re glad you’re not part of that?

A: Yeah, every day, every moment. Three years was enough of that.

Q: Did you find yourself disagreeing with Lance or the team management?

A: I did disagree at times, but [Lance] deserves the respect that he gets on the team. Unlike most teams, he is a leader and an owner of the team, so it would be … out of respect, I think that when he asks for something it would be unfair to disagree.

I did disagree at times, yeah, but the only times I disagreed were times that I felt I was treated unfairly, rather than disagreeing with something they wanted to do in a race, or some way they were trying to accomplish something. I respected their position as far as that was concerned … if there was something they wanted done I did it. There was no disagreement there.

On the other hand, if I felt that something was expected of me that was unreasonable, then yeah, I would disagree. We’ll leave that open-ended.

Q: Would they expect things of you in a race that you felt were unreasonable?

A: They have very high standards, and in the race, some of the things they would ask you to are impossible, but you don’t argue, you do the best you can. They want you to spend 100 percent, to be sure that Lance does as little as possible to have the best chance of winning the race. And along those lines I never disagreed, because that’s the way they did things. That’s the way everybody understood it to be, and I think everybody gave 100 percent, just like I did.

Nobody was bitter about that, and nobody got angry and said it’s impossible, and that they weren’t going to do anything. It was fair, because we understood the way it worked.

If I disagreed with something, it wasn’t in a race, or any critical moment … that’s the way they do things, that’s the way they run their team and that’s why I left. To my way of thinking, it should have ended right there.

Q: There was some discussion about Armstrong’s riding during stage 6 of the Dauphiné Libéré, that he may have deliberately raced against you. How did you see it?

A: I don’t know exactly what their goal was for the race, but if they were racing against me, all they did was hurt Levi [Leipheimer], because Levi should have won the race. In the end our best option was to send [Santiago] Botero in the breakaway, and that’s what we did, and we should have won after that, but it’s bicycle racing and you have to get lucky.

[Discovery] didn’t do anything. They might as well have not been in the race because they had no effect on the race at all. I don’t know what their goal was. Certainly, I know Lance well enough to know that if he could have won the race, he would have. He was not strong enough to win the race, so I think they decided that there was no point in trying, so they rode their bikes around for eight days and that was it. If they hadn’t been there, there would have been no change in the race.

Q: Do you have a relationship with Lance now?

A: It’s always been an odd relationship because he was my boss for three years. During that time we only saw him a few months out of the year, but he’s far busier than most cyclists are. Just as I expected, after I left the team I didn’t see him much, because I hardly saw him before. He has his life and I have mine.

Q: Do you talk to each other at this Tour? Any sort of exchanges?

A: Not really. He has his job to do, and I have mine.

Q: Do you feel any pressure to be the next Lance?

A: I don’t pretend to be, in any way, like Lance. In no way do I want what Lance has in life, other than to be the best bicycle racer I can be. The pressure, the fame … all of it seems excessive, I would say, but he enjoys his life, and I’m happy for him. He’s been successful and that’s what he wants out of life and he deserves it because he works hard. On the other hand, in the next few years, I’ll continue to race and spend as much time as I can becoming the best bicycle racer I can without risking my family or anything else that makes me happy in life.

Q: Is it true you encouraged your housemate in Girona, Dave Zabriskie, to focus on winning the stage 1 time trial?

A: Yeah, well he hasn’t done the Tour before, and a lot of people don’t finish their first Tour. It’s not that uncommon. So I figured he had done a lot of racing already this year and his best opportunity to get something for himself out of the Tour would be to focus on the opening time trial. After that, work for [Ivan] Basso. I felt if I were him, my main objective would be to win the opening time trial, get the leader’s jersey and be the big star, and after that, it doesn’t matter what happens. He pulled it off.

I knew it would be a difficult race for him, because he’s done a lot of racing already this year. He’s certainly one of the best bicycle racers in the world. He needs a little more practice at staying relaxed in the peloton, but other than that he’s one of the best chances of Americans winning the Tour after Lance. Zabriskie’s better than me, I’d say that. He’s certainly one of the strongest guys in the world. He just doesn’t have the confidence to relax in the peloton so he spends a lot of energy uselessly, but he’ll figure it out sooner or later.

For the full story, pick up a copy of the Tour de France issue, on newsstands now.

* * *

I want to thank a pair of readers, Bart Stoehr and Joshua Mann, for writing me regarding the whereabouts of David Clinger. As reported in last week’s column, Clinger – who made waves when he showed up to the Webcor Builders team camp adorned in a fresh full-face Maori-style tattoo – is no longer riding with the Northern California squad.

As Mann wrote, “On July 16 Dave Clinger won the pro/1-2-3 race of the SBBC’s Semana Nautica Criterium in Helens Cycling-RPM kit riding a Litespeed bike. He and two local riders lapped the peloton. His team gave him a great leadout to beat his breakaway companions to the line.”

Mann added, “I did a double take when I saw his tattoo on the start line. I’m glad to see his sponsors recognizing his talent over his appearance.”

As for his former sponsors, team manager Frank Scioscia left me a voicemail last week on Clinger’s status, saying, “The short answer is David is moving on to pursue other opportunities. Given the terms of the agreement with the team, that’s the decision that he effectively made. I don’t have a lot to say about it at this point, and that’s the standard team response that we’ve got for it. He’s doing what he wants to do, and that’s it.”

http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/8650.0.html

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SFGP is back on, and this time, without T-Mobile I guess…

“SAN FRANCISCO GP CONFIRMED FOR 2005 (07/27/2005)

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/?id=200 … /jul27news

Threshold’s Chauner optimistic for future

By Tim Maloney, European Editor, http://www.cyclingnews.com

Despite rumours to the contrary, the 2005 edition of the San Francisco Grand Prix bicycle race will definitely happen, according to race organizer Dave Chauner of Threshold Sports. “We are happy to tell Cyclingnews that we have secured a new title sponsor for the event with a three-year commitment and will be making an official announcement shortly, but we wanted to get the news out to the cycling community that come September 4th, the top cyclists in the world will be out challenge the streets of San Francisco again,” he said.

“We also have reached an agreement with the City of San Francisco about city services costs,” Chauner added. “Mayor Gavin Newsom has been really supportive of the San Francisco Grand Prix race and now we’re really positioned well for the future.” Chauner explained that Threshold Sports is now the sole owner of the SFGP, although they continue to collaborate closely with former partners Tailwind Sports. “Dan Osipow has done a fantastic job over the years for the race in San Francisco, and we continue to have a great relationship with him and Tailwind Sports.”

Chauner expressed regrets that there would be no women’s SFGP this year, saying to Cyclingnews that “we really wish that we could have a women’s race in 2005; the last two years were excellent events where top women racers from all over the world came to compete. But with our budget shortfalls, it was impossible to keep the course open the extra time to do the women’s race,” he said.

“Due to the unique way the SFPD runs the rolling enclosure for the race, we can not put both races on simultaneously. The traffic impact would be too great, so we can only run the women’s race before the men’s race. But we have had a great response from the cycling community in San Francisco and our goal is to bring back the Women’s San Francisco GP in 2006.” When the official announcement is made for the 2005 San Francisco GP, Cyclingnews provide further information as it happens.

Tour de France Star, George Hincapie to Race in San Francisco (07/27/2005)

http://www.procyclingtour.com/connected.cfm/press_id/26

George Hincapie, winner of the inaugural San Francisco Grand Prix in 2001, will head the field in this year’s 108 mile professional cycling race set for September 4. Dubbed “America’s Toughest Bike Race”, the popular event got its reputation from the steep slopes of two of San Francisco’s legendary hills that the racers will face 24 times during the four and a half hour event.

Not that the climbing should phase George Hincapie. On July 17th, the 32 year old pro rode out from the shadow of Discovery Channel teammate and overall race leader, Lance Armstrong, to win his first ever Tour de France stage from Lezat-sur-Leze to St-Lary Soulan, the most mountainous stage of this year’s Tour. The 125 mile leg traversed six mountain passes in the Pyrenees, nearly twice the climbing Hincapie will face in San Francisco. Armstrong, who has competed in the San Francisco Grand Prix three times, has announced his retirement immediately following this year’s Tour de France, leaving the door open for Hincapie to be a possible Tour winner next year.

There will be other Tour de France riders and tough climbing specialists in San Francisco as well. At least three other Tour de France teams, including CSC, are expected to enter the race along with up to fourteen domestic pro teams.

Race organizers, Threshold Sports, are expected to announce the event’s sponsor line-up soon, including a new title sponsor.”

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