USA Repeats Paris-Nice

For 71 years, an American had never stood atop the winner’s podium of the Paris-Nice bicycle race. Now Americans have two years in a row. In 2005 Bobby Julich broke the drought and this year it was Floyd Landis’ turn to seize the reins of the 792-mile ‘Race to the Sun,’ edging out Spaniard Patxi Villa Errandonea by nine seconds.

This is on the heels of Landis’ victory in February’s Tour of California, which he won by 29 seconds. With a start to his season like this, Landis is predictably looking forward to bigger and better things – when asked what would be next, he replied, “preparation for the big race in July.” Performance and talk like this will quickly be inflated into Bode-like hype in the hopes of another American domination of the Tour. Landis is a stalwart racer and I’d like to see him do well, but I’d be astonished to see him in yellow next time he’s in Paris.