Landis after the Luxembourgers
“Floyd went off like a motorbike, unbelievable! He was doing 40 km/h uphill!” -Michael Rogers
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The race of so many questions and might-have-beens, deemed the “Asterisk Tour”, just gets better and better.
When Floyd cracked and lost 10 minutes, it looked doubtful he was going to win. But not to Eddy Merckx, who called that night, telling him to go on the attack because it was not over yet. So after his “bad day for a bad day” Floyd drank some beer, and rested up.
The next day he accelerated away from all the favorites on one of the early climbs. He caught and then shelled an 11-man breakaway on his way to the stage win. The remaining 30 second deficit he overcame in today’s time trial.
Please can we have your trademark victory lap wheelie displays? When’ll be the next winner who’ll do them for us??
Since it’s bloody unreal to overcome an 8 minute deficit, you have to look all the way back to 1958 to find a precedent. That was the epic comeback by Charly Gaul the Luxembourger (riding a Learco Guerra).
In terms of bouncing back from a low overall position, though, the closest may be the performance by Charly Gaul in 1958, in the Chartreuse Massif. The Luxembourger had lost ten minutes due in part to mechanical problems and conceded time elsewhere, starting the final mountain stage sixth, a massive 16’03 behind Raphaël Géminiani.However the torrential rain and freezing conditions encountered on the road to Aix les Bains was perfect for Gaul, who thrived in such weather. He attacked on the Luitel, approximately 100 kilometres from the finish, and ended the stage 7’50 ahead of the next rider, Jean Adriaenssens. Crucially, Géminiani finished back in 7th and lost 14′35″. By the start of the final time trial, Gaul was just 1’07 behind new leader Vito Favero and 39” off Géminiani, but he eclipsed both in the race against the clock to win the Tour.
The Tour went through Luxembourg earlier on in this race. And when Landis first donned yellow, on the Alpe d’Huez, he finished just behind stage winner Frank Shleck - another Luxembourger. Quite a heritage they have, considering their country is smaller than Tucson. Shleck went by more people watching on the last climb than there are in his whole country.