Told You So

Last year, as Lance Armstrong was winning his 7th Tour De France, I wrote a bit called "Tour De Not That Hard". I questioned how hard this race was since it seems like the people winning it always have some sort of fucked up condition - Lance had cancer, Greg Lemond had been shot a bunch of times, etc. Well, Lance has retired and guess who is winning the tour right now. This guy:

Bad hip doesn't stop Landis
Doctors stunned cyclist is contender in Tour de France

CHICAGO - Elite cyclist Floyd Landis has Tour de France fans and even many physicians stumped. How can a guy whose hip is falling apart hop on a bike, let alone be a contender in this most grueling challenge? His degenerating condition has crumbled the ball of his hip joint so that it no longer fits neatly into the socket, his doctor says. The irregular-shaped bone has ground down surrounding cartilage, and arthritis has set in. Landis, 30, broke his right hip and severed its blood supply in a fall on gravel during a steep downhill training ride near his California home three years ago. Three subsequent operations failed to fix the problem, and without blood to nourish the joint, his hip bone slowly has been dying.

Wow, what an incredible story. I haven't heard about a guy overcoming so much since last year's Tour De France, or the one before that, or every single one before that. How can a guy like that be a contender in "this most grueling challenge"? Cause it's not that fricking hard!

Seriously, are there no cyclists who are actually healthy? We can't find one two-hipped, two-balled, non-bullet wounded guy to stick on a Schwin? Again, you don't see this in other sports and you know why? Because those sports are difficult. Everyone is at an elite level and if you get a sprained ankle much less cancer or an arthritic hip you can no longer compete. This is crazy! Why don't we just throw Stephen Hawking in there at this point? He may have a tough time climbing the Pyrenes, but I bet he'll do well on the down hill portion. So just stop telling me how hard this thing is until it's won by a guy with a complete set of body parts.