Landis regained the lead from Oscar Pereiro of Spain with a strong
performance in Saturday's time trial and ended up 57 seconds ahead of Pereiro in
the overall standings.
Andreas Kloeden of Germany made it to the podium for the second time. He
placed third, 1:29 behind Landis. In 2004, Kloeden was second behind Armstrong.
When Landis sweated for Armstrong between 2001-04, it was a total sacrifice.
He got that commitment from his teammates this year.
"It's a risk placing everything on one person," Landis said Saturday. "It's
the best way ... that's what I got (learned) from Armstrong."
Although they did not suffer the same types of pain, they both share an
ability to overcome it.
"His strength was not his team," Armstrong said. "His strength was his mind
and his will."
Armstrong overcame cancer to win his first Tour in 1999, and Landis has been
racing with a hip so damaged it needs to be replaced. He delayed the operation
to try for this Tour.
Turning humiliation into triumph also manifested itself in both riders.
When Armstrong suffered during the 2003 Tour, battered by dehydration and
losing massive time to Jan Ullrich during a time trial, he appeared to be on the
ropes.
Following that, he fell off his bike on a mountain climb up to Luz Ardiden _
when a spectator's bag had tangled itself up in his handlebars. Then, his pedal
jammed, almost causing him to fall again, and he looked like he was about to
lose the Tour.
Instead of reeling, he got angry, roared back up the mountain and destroyed
his rivals in an astonishing display of mental strength.
Landis did a similar thing at this Tour.
On Wednesday, he suffered terribly in the Alps, losing huge time as he
chugged upward slowly under a burning sun. The climbs _ the mammoth Col du
Galibier and Croix-de-Fer _ took so much out of him that he ended up 8:08 behind
Pereiro.
