One Hip Yellow Jersey

This is the image (AFP) from Stage 17 that will most likely be remembered from this 93rd Tour de France: Floyd Landis punching the air, not in triumph, but in defiance of the impossible. This was his moment on the slopes of La Toussuire. The time trial two days later merely confirmed his triumph; his ride into Paris Sunday was final affirmation.
When Our Boy Lance was winning his seven Tours, part of the satisfaction we all felt was that Lance stood for something more than the bike. His greatest triumphs as a cancer survivor lie ahead of him as the Lance Armstrong Foundation continues to battle cancer.
So, what will this victory stand for? What makes Floyd Landis's victory bigger than a personal triumph?
Well, maybe nothing -- and that would be all right. But maybe everything, and not in the same commercial way that made and continues to make the marketing of OBL distasteful at times.
Floyd is a simpler kind of guy. Focused like Lance. As dedicated as Lance. And now, successful like Lance in this great race.
But what is the significance? We like significance.
“I don’t pretend to know a lot about what’s going on in life most of the time,” Landis said. “But I had good parents who taught me that hard work and patience were some of the most important things in getting what you wanted. It took me a long time in my life to learn patience. But that and persistence, I think, is the lesson that even I learned from this race.
“The way I grew up was a bit more simple than the way I live now. But I have wonderful parents and a wonderful family and if they want to make a story out of it, I guess it’s not a bad one.
"I came here to win the Tour and that's what I still want to do. I'm not done fighting yet," Landis said after the stage he cracked.
He didn't stop fighting when no one would have faulted him for accepting the inevitable, more than eight minutes behind the yellow jersey.
"I want to win the Tour, whatever I've got to do. If I had a bad day, I had to make up for it."
We all have bad days. Do we make up for them?
And you can bet that Floyd wasn't talking about doping when he said "whatever I've got to do."
You get the sense that Floyd Landis plays by the rules, within the rules.
Of that day he cracked, Landis said, "It was the most humiliating thing that ever happened to me. I wished and hoped I would have the opportunity to become a leader and to wear the yellow jersey. I don't feel my life would have been a failure not having won the Tour.
"I'll fight to come back next year or the following year, whatever it takes because cycling is a beautiful sport.
“I have to say that since it’s a dream of mine, and having hip replacement puts that in jeopardy, that having won the race, I’ll be much more relaxed. I’ll fight as hard as I have in this race to come back next year or the following year, whatever it takes to be back.”
Do you want to bet against him?