- Title: FRANCE: CYCLING - US fans not surprised at Floyd Landis taking yellow jersey
- Date: 23rd July 2006
- Summary: MONTCEAU-LES-MINES, FRANCE (JULY 22, 2006) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) FINISH LINE/ DUTCH RIDER JOOST POSTHUMA OF RABOBANK TEAM RELAXING LANDIS FAN 'CHARLIE' (SOUNDBITE) (English) LANDIS FAN 'CHARLIE' SPEAKING BEFORE THE RACE SAYING: "Today, Floyd Landis" (INTERVIEWER: What do you think about this guy?") "I think he's a remarkable American hero. The next Armstrong" U.S. CYCLING FANS TOM AND SHEILA SWINFORD FROM OREGON, WHO ARE TOURING FRANCE ON THEIR BIKES (SOUNDBITE) (English) TOM SWINFORD FROM OREGON, USA SAYING: "It's got to be Landis. Yeah, yeah" (QUESTION ABOUT LANDIS'S SPECTACULAR RECOVERY) "Oh I know. I was surprised, I was surprised. watching that last stage you know where he fell apart, you know, I thought 'oh no it's all over'. But gosh he came back! How did he do that? What strength" TOUR MAP ON BACK OF MAN'S T-SHIRT U.S. LANDIS FANS CYCLING FAN NICOLAS GABET READING 'L'EQUIPE' NEWSPAPER SOUNDBITE) (French) FAN NICOLAS GABET SAYING: "Fantastic, we've never seen such a race for a long time, it's unusual and it's so different fromt the previous years! It was much better this year, I really enjoyed it" JOURNALISTS AND CEMRAMEN HASSLING LANDIS AFTER RACE LANDIS ENTERING NEWS CONFERENCE CAMERAS (SOUNDBITE) (English) TOUR DE FRANCE LEADER FLOYD LANDIS SAYING ABOUT PROBABLY WINNING RACE: "It's not over yet. I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen next, but I hope we can handle tomorrow at least. If that's the case then, I think it will sink in later. Right now, I'm tired from the time trial" JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) TOUR DE FRANCE LEADER FLOYD LANDIS ANSWERING QUESTION ABOUT AMERICAN WINNING "STREAK": "The streak is mostly thanks to Lance (Armstrong). He won seven in a row, so, whether I'm part of a streak or of some characteristic I don't know. There's a lot of people in the race who want to win equally as bad as me and like I said, I feel lucky, because it's three weeks long and a lot of things can happen and a lot of people put just as much work into it as I did and on the right days, we had the right luck. There was some bad luck, but overall I don't think there's some kind of characteristic from Americans that's any different than the other guys in the race, no" NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) TOUR DE FRANCE LEADER FLOYD LANDIS SAYING: "In this sport I think it's clear we've proved that we do more than any other sport to try to prevent doping and to try to solve the problem. For that reason we have a reputation that doesn't seem to want to go away. But as far as a message, I think it's up to every child's parents to explain to them while they're watching the race what the best decisions in life are about. That's the way my parents raised me and I think that's not a bad way to do it" LANDIS LEAVING NEWS CONFERENCE
- Embargoed: 7th August 2006 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: France
- Country: France
- Topics: Sports
- Reuters ID: LVA9N6VEHZ7YY385COVM9FO2VUHV
- Story Text: Floyd Landis is poised to succeed U.S. compatriot Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France's roll of honour after beating his closest rivals in Saturday's (July 22) decisive time trial, which was won by Ukraine's Serhiy Honchar.
U.S. fans speaking before Saturday's stage were confident that Landis would win.
The man himself told a news conference in Montceau-les-Mines, however, that the race was not yet over.
"I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen next, but I hope we can handle tomorrow at least. If that's the case then I think it will sink in later. Right now, I'm tired from the time trial."
Asked if he believed he was part of an American winning streak, Landis replied: "The streak is mostly thanks to Lance (Armstrong). He won seven in a row, so, whether I'm part of a streak or of some characteristic I don't know. There's a lot of people in the race who want to win equally as bad as me and like I said, I feel lucky, because it's three weeks long and a lot of things can happen and a lot of people put just as much work into it as I did and on the right days, we had the right luck. There was some bad luck, but overall I don't think there's some kind of characteristic from Americans that's any different than the other guys in the race, no."
There were several questions about doping and Landis commented: "In this sport I think it's clear we've proved that we do more than any other sport to try to prevent doping and to try to solve the problem. For that reason we have a reputation that doesn't seem to want to go away. But as far as a message, I think it's up to every child's parents to explain to them while they're watching the race what the best decisions in life are about. That's the way my parents raised me and I think that's not a bad way to do it."
Sunday's 20th and last stage will lead the peloton over 154.5km from Antony to the Champs Elysees in Paris. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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