VAIL, Colo. -- No yellow jersey at stake. No bills to pay. No reputation to defend.
Instead, Floyd Landis rode in a nice little race on a mountain bike Saturday -- an event the Tour de France champion entered only to raise money for charity and possibly remind himself of how much simpler his world used to be.
It was his first real race of any kind since his victory ride down the Champs-Elysees in Paris last July. He finished an unofficial 49th on Saturday, nearly 25 minutes behind the first-place finisher in a two-hour grind through the mountains of Vail.
"I haven't suffered in a while," he said when it was over, happy he simply finished his first mountain-bike race in nearly nine years. "I figured this was a good place to start."
Indeed, the result wasn't what mattered to him on this day. Simply being in Vail, away from lawyers, publicists and the troubles that have defined his life and his troubled sport of late, was a refreshing change.
"I just get tired of having everything focused on me," Landis said in a pre-race interview with the Associated Press. "Once I got here, it occurred to me again that it's not always like that."
It reminded him that, yes, the whole racing scene can be fun, even though it's far from perfect.
"Obviously, I'm not the only one in the sport with some issues," he said. "The sport's dealing with a lot of stuff right now. That's not a reason for me to pretend it wasn't part of my life or doesn't exist. I still care about it. I still care about the people who were there."
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| Any winnings Floyd Landis' team earns in Vail will go to prostate cancer research. (AP) |
But not from riding -- at least not in an event like this, the Teva Mountain Games, where he's racing for charity, with any winnings his team earns going to prostate cancer research.
He said his surgically repaired hip feels good. So good, in fact, that had he been eligible to defend his yellow jersey at the Tour de France next month, he'd be there. Instead, he'll watch the Tour from his home in California, maybe mix in some bike rides in the afternoons.
As he headed into this weekend's short races -- he'll also compete in a time trial Sunday -- he was still trying to work his way back into shape, as his less-than-stellar finish showed.
"There were quite a few weeks when I rode a reasonable amount, 200-300 miles a week," he said. "Then that hearing. It was almost 10 days. I didn't ride at all. You're sitting there. The next thing you know, you're eating doughnuts and you don't even care. It was awful."
