Can another cyclist with a serious health issue be the heartwarming story that revives flagging U.S. interest in the post-Lance Tour de France?
Or does it make any difference who wins a race with serious credibility issues, even after–or maybe because–the 2006 Tour cleansed itself with an 11th-hour ban of the top four finishers behind Armstrong last year over their alleged involvement in a doping scandal?
The first question should be answered in the next few days, now that U.S. rider Floyd Landis has taken the yellow jersey and looks like a good bet to be wearing it when the Tour finishes July 23 in Paris.
Landis announced this week he has been riding for nearly two years with a right hip so badly degenerated that he intends to have it replaced this year. While an extremely painful hip is certainly a lesser crisis than cancer, which Armstrong overcame to win seven straight Tours before retiring last July, it still gives Landis a courageous triumph-over-adversity dimension that should appeal to people.
The folks at OLN certainly hope so. Through the first 12 stages of the 2006 Tour, the network’s ratings are off 56 percent.
And Landis has not been linked to doping, though that never prevented U.S. viewers from tuning in to root for Lance.
