Monday Roundup

News
CyclingNews has a brief report of Cohutta, saying Landis fell off a lead group of seven on the second climb.

Blogs
Danielle Musto posts Part 2 in her pain filled story of the grueling Cohutta 100, staring is still not polite though completely understandable.

Biking Zen has his race report, with another view of Danielle's day.

How hard? Bike Man shares this fractured syntax description of a friend beating Landis up a hill, and a picture of the bathing utility of the river:

The big surprise was when Floyd Landis and Daveyboy started a long climb together. That is right the former Tour Day France winner and Daveyboy started a climb together. Any body that knows Daveyboy can perdict what would happen on this climb. Image The Tour Day France winner and you on a climb in your back yard. Every time I have ridden with Daveyboy he would drop dead to stay in front me finishing a climb. No one beats Daveyboy to the top of the Mountain. May be nine out of ten times Floyd would crash Daveyboy, but not today. Today was Daveyboy's day. Daveyboy with high RPM's left Floyd Landis on the climb. During the climb Floyd told Daveyboy to shift down your RPM's are way to high! I can tell you just added more fuel to the fire and Daveyboy's legs just kicked up even faster. Daveyboy finished fourteen minutes ahead of Landis and waited for Floyd to finish. Landis showed character as he finished the race and just wanted to sit in the river and gave Daveyboy a hug and said you are one Hell of rider. Landis said this was the race he had ever competed in and it was hard. I respect this guy for being a humble competitor.

Muddy Floyd becomes Wet Floyd. (photo: Bike Man)

Shawn Adams finished 8th, and says, " It rained for 3hrs of the 7hr race and we finished only 3min slower than last year. "

Gregy Gibson eventually finished 14th, and gives a report at his blog, with a different version at MTB Race News,

The man to beat before the race started was not last years winner and multi world champion Chris Eatough, but Floyd Landis. Everybody started at the front, for a chance to take out '' the man." The race begun on a paved road that went uphill for a mile or so before diving into muddy single track. the early morning rain kept the riders cool and the trail slippery. All the racers jockied for those front positions on the tight trail, but all that work didn't seem to matter as the course turned into 80 miles of climbing on a wide open gravel road. At about mile 30 I passed Floyd, he looked done and was going backwards fast. I don't know what his story was, but the novelty of his presence at the race quickly dissolved.

The man who stole the show for the day was Jeff Shalk riding for Trek VW, almost matching the time set by his teammate Eatough last year on a dyer faster course. Jeff beat the fastest group of guys ever compiled at a 100 mile race.

Lest anyone think everyone was happy to see Landis, Gregy's blog continues:

my opinion on the whole thing is this , HE IS SUSPENDED , HE SHOULDN'T EVEN BE RACING, HE WAS DETERMINED TO BE GUILTY OF USING PERFORMANCE ENHANCING DRUGS. HIS SUSPENSION WAS FOR TWO YEARS AND IT HASN'T BEEN TWO YEARS YET.

Cohutta isn't a USACycling race, so this must be a "moral" argument. A comment about this on his blog post is hung in moderation. [Update: comments there point this out, so far without argument.]

Solon Cycling's report says:

I don't care what you think of the 2006 Tour, or Landis, that all gets forgotten when you are in the presence of someone like that. He's got no attitude, no peacocking around, just a guy that showed up to race his bike. Ross even got to trail him for a while on the road climb

...
[A Solon rider] was able to fight back to a top 25 finish...just about 10 minutes behind Floyd who ended up bonking around the 35 mile mark, and if not for another rider friend, would have pulled out of the race.

Highland Training writes:

Jeff Schalk never looked back after sprinting over the first hill of the day and went on to win in an amazing 6:48 time on a wet combination of trails and forest roads. Eatough finished 5th for the day and Tour Legend Floyd Landis finished 1:30 back of the lead.

That's one hour, thirty minutes back. Yow. We haven't heard a story, and maybe we won't if it sounds like excuses. Guess he wasn't the strongest guy, and needs more training and fewer Krispy Kremes. Or more Krispy Cremes that morning, if he bonked at mile 30 as the reports above suggest. Doh!

At rec.bicycles.racing, someone snarked,

His results in the local MTB races demonstrates that he has essentially lost the will to fight anymore.

We don't know about that - he's got enough anger for that to be his sole motivation (like it worked for Lance) - but he needs to take the training more seriously to be competitive. The locked-in-a-room hearing last month couldn't have helped conditioning.

Stephen raced the Cohutta 100 too, despite his better instincts. It took him awhile to get Floyd Landis' autograph, but he eventually managed it despite Floyd's "posse". Stephen took the picture below.

Floyd Landis with "entourage". Must not have been enough nutrition in that Hammer bag.

Bad Idea Racing has a report that approaches poetry.

Part Five
Checkpoint 5.2

I saw a man in a chair at the side of the road, and when I gave him the nod he asked me if I wanted a beer.

"Cold?" I asked.
"Of course" he replied, as if it were a silly question.

I dumped my bike in the ditch and graciously accepted the 16 oz Keystone Light.

At the SORBA Forum thread, Roadhard starts a report sounding like TBV:

I had a good first 100 feet in the 35. The race winner, Janson (age 13) passed me fairly soon on that 3 mile blacktop climb.

Mark D, whose pictures we highlighted yesterday, has his own long report, relating the desire to strangle an eight year old girl. He offers this description:

I finally make it to rest stop 5 and am told theres a 3 mile climb coming up.Theres a racer sitting there leaned up against a tree who looks like a total zombie.The entire time I was at the rest stop his expression never changed.He was just staring into space.
...
I can't believe how long it takes to cover 10 measly miles."Is this f'n rest stop EVER going to get here"?"When will these hills stop?!!!!"Can I make it??!!!!I think it was about this time that I made up my mind that if I ever finished this god forsaken ride that my racing days were over.'I'm finished" I proclaimed to myself.I don't think I have cussed that long or that hard ever.
...
I was almost finished but I wanted off this bike and I wanted off right this minute!!!!!I want my mommy !!!!!!
...
Crossing under that finish line was the greatest feeling in the world and once again reminded me why I do stuff like this.

Funny thing is not 4 hours later I was already thinking about next year.

Of course!


Blue Basin has some photo galleries.


from other blogs...

Bike Radar/ProCycling News blog tries to debunk another explanation for the Landis case -- the "Procycling Cover Curse", which they hope isn't about to bite Cunego, like it seemed to bite Landis, Basso, Ullrich, Evans and Hincapie before.

A Weekly Reader found "Positively False" nothing more than part of a Floyd Landis PR campaign.

UltraRob has a few words about LeMond's appearance in Colorado Springs.

Erik believes in Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis and as a lawyer feels Floyd should be riding today. He wants to see Tyler tear everyone's legs off at the Tour of Georgia, no matter what transpired in the past.