What makes Floyd Landis an American sports hero isn't just that he won-we Americans win a lot. Landis is an American sports hero for the same reason that fellow cyclist Lance Armstrong, Major League legend Jackie Robinson and numerous others are-because they overcame adversity to win. Armstrong overcame cancer. Robinson overcame racial segregation. Landis overcame a severely damaged hip.

Nothing could keep Landis from realizing his childhood dream of winning the Tour de France. However, it wasn't an easy journey. Being raised in a Mennonite community in Farmersville, Pa., his strong religious beliefs couldn't contain his love of cycling.

At the age of 15 he purchased his first mountain bike at a local bicycle shop. After winning the first mountain bike race he entered and later winning the junior national championship, it seemed that Landis was destined for greatness. However, his obsession with cycling led him to choose between Landis the cyclist or Landis the Mennonite.

"They (my parents) basically told me I was going to hell if I kept racing my bike," Landis told The New York Times. "I love my parents, and they're good people, but that didn't make any sense to me. So I knew I had to get out, and the bike was the way."

With his heart and mind solely focused on cycling, Landis hit the pro circuit, joining such teams as Mercury Pro Cycling and the U.S. Postal Service. Unfortunately for Landis, adversity was lurking around the corner.

In 2002, Landis crashed his bike while training in southern California. As a result of the crash, he was diagnosed with osteonecrosis, a disease where the bone and marrow die in the absence of an invective agent. In Landis's case, the ball of his right hip was deteriorating and the only way to fix it would be to have hip replacement surgery.

Instead of opting to get surgery right away, Landis just kept racing. But the injury forced him to change the way he raced.

"I always have to get on my bike putting my right leg over first," Landis told The New York Times. "If I tried to get on the other way I'd be lying on the pavement."

With a new racing form and cycling team, U.S. Postal Service, Landis was back on his bike doing what he loves to do the most-ride. Luckily for Landis, he got to ride with Armstrong from 2002-2004, watching him overcome cancer to win seven straight titles. But watching someone else overcome adversity to win the Tour de France didn't guarantee him the same success.

In the 2006 Tour, it seemed that everything was going Landis's way. Top Tour favorites Ivan Basso and Jan Ulrich, along with numerous others, were banned from the Tour the day before the start of the race because of their connections with a Spanish doctor charged with doping. However, all was well until the mountain stage 16. For Landis, his strengths are time trials and mountain climbs. So it was surprising when he lost nearly ten minutes in one mountain stage, dropping him from third place all the way to 11th place.

After the stage 16 collapse, everyone was counting him out. The Daily Herald ran a headline on the front page of the sports section that read "Stink Floyd." However, the Herald couldn't have been more shortsighted. The very next day, Landis won the stage, making up all but 30 seconds of the time he lost the previous day. His performance in stage 17 was one of the greatest one-stage comebacks in recent Tour history.

"It was a Hail Mary pass," Landis told the Associated Press. "To my way of thinking, 11th place was the same as 80th place. I didn't care, I wanted to win, so I took the risk."

The rest is history. Landis made up the 30 seconds and more in time trial stage 19, which put him atop the leaderboard and secured the yellow jersey for good.

But it wasn't just the fact that he won the Tour de France that made his accomplishment noteworthy, but the adversity he overcame with his bad hip. However, this isn't the end for Landis. He recently announced that he would have hip replacement surgery this fall and plans to race in next year's Tour. Regardless of whether he races again, Landis will still be known as an American sports hero.

Copyright Brigham Young University 26 Jul 2006