Radio Free Kirkopolis

Anyone remember a guy named Greg Lemond? Yeah, think back to that cover of Sports Illustrated when he was the Athlete of the Year. ‘Member? He’s was he first American to win the Tour de France. Oh, and he did it three times.
But there’s something you may not remember about him…
Anyone remember a guy named Lance Armstrong? Sure ya do. He was that guy that was bangin’ Sheryl Crow while selling a gazillion yellow wristbands for cancer research. You may also recall that he had testicular cancer.
But there’s something else you may not remember about that cancer.
Anyone ever heard of a guy named Floyd Landis? Well, you soon will. He’s the American who just won the Tour de France.
But there’s a bunch of things you might not know about him.

Greg-
Excerpts from his webpage-

In 1986, Greg LeMond, despite being constantly threatened by his own teammate, Bernard Hinault, became the first American to win the largest single annual sporting event in the world, the Tour de France…

…In the midst of his run of success he was involved in an appalling accident which almost cost him his life and left him in serious danger of never being able to ride again, let alone compete and win at the top level of the sport. This tragedy struck on April 20, 1987, when his brother-in-law accidentally shot Greg while hunting in California. Over forty shotgun pellets ripped through Greg's body, lodging not only in his back and legs, but more critically in his small intestine, liver, diaphragm, and heart lining. While waiting for rescue, his right lung collapsed and he lost three quarters of his blood supply. A cell phone, a police helicopter and nearby hospital that specialized in gun shot wounds saved his life. Because of the dangerous locations, surgeons were forced to leave over thirty of the pellets imbedded in his body.After the horrific shooting accident, LeMond put together a comeback, which went beyond the limits of the average man. Greg's long rehabilitation process was both painful and frustrating. He had lost over twenty pounds, most of it pure muscle, and his level of fitness had decreased dramatically. Ever determined, he set a goal for himself to win the Tour de France again! …
…That LeMond did make it back to winning ways says volumes about his determination and skill, characteristics which had become evident when he won the 1986 Tour de France… Greg went for it all in the 1989 Tour de France. He fought to stay competitive through the grueling 21-days of racing, which ranged from 100-155 miles each. Right out of a Hollywood movie, Greg overcame a seemingly insurmountable lead by Frenchman Laurent Fignon to win by a mere 8 seconds, the narrowest margin of victory ever in the Tour de France's 87-year history! The incredible resurrection of LeMond's career was capped by victory a month later in the 1989 World Championships. Many awards followed, including being named the 1989 "Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year".
To prove his return to the top was no fluke, Greg won another historic Tour de France for the third time in 1990, before retiring from competitive cycling.

So, this guy gets shot in the chest (the x-ray by the way, is that picture under ‘my profile’) almost dies, then with only his sheer determination and will, claws his way back to win the most physically grueling competing on the planet- two more times.

Lance-
Yeah, yeah, we all know he had testicular cancer- but did you also know he had advanced stages of cancer in his brain and lungs as well? Yup- it’s just that no one knew that at the time of his press conference. Then, using his sheer determination and will, he claws his way back to win the most physically grueling competing on the planet- seven times.
Now there’s Floyd-

A few years ago Floyd, a former Mountain Bike champion, broke his hip in a particularly nasty way, needing three screws to hold it together. Since then the bloodflow to his bones has been reduced, causing a serious deterialtion of the bone itself, the result of which is an arthritic hip so painful I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone. The man cannot sleep due to the excruciating pain yet refuses to take any type of painkiller. The pain of the arthritis is enough to make most men unable to walk, yet he used that same hip to win a bike race that was over 2,000 miles long. (As a matter of fact, Floyd will soon have his hip replaced with a titanium hip, the results of will be unclear. It is uncharted territory- he may be a better man for it, or he may never ride a bicycle again).
Think this guy is tough? Well, here’s more
Excerpts from The New York Times-

Perhaps that is the best way to characterize Landis, 31, a man who, like many professional cyclists, keeps fighting even while keeping many of his true feelings hidden away, unwilling to share them with an intruding world.
When Landis is on his bike, he is usually stone-faced, failing to show even a hint of emotion — the product of a conservative upbringing and an intense discipline to keeping his true feelings under wraps…
… Landis said he believed that certain aspects of his upbringing, in a strict Mennonite family in eastern Pennsylvania, with no television and many expectations about what constituted proper behavior, contributed to his rise to the top of his sport…
… Landis frequently stresses the importance of the role of parents, even in discussing what cyclists can do to influence young fans who watch their terrific exploits and yet hear that illegal doping is practiced by some riders.
“I think it’s up to every child’s parents to explain to them while they’re watching the race what the best decisions in life are about,” he said. “That’s the way my parents raised me and I think that’s not a bad way to do it.”

Throughout the Tour, French newspapers have been blasting Landis for this and that, much like they did with Greg and Lance. During stage 13 Landis fell apart, loosing a seemingly insurmountable 8 minuets. The French papers had a field day- only to see Landis, on the very next day, make up a spectacular 7 ½ minuets in what many believe to be the single greatest one-day performance in Tour history.
The papers were very quiet on his comeback.

For the last two weeks of the race, after Landis first took the race leader’s yellow jersey in the Pyrenees mountains, there were plenty of people who doubted Landis: for example, the headline writers for the French newspaper whose summary of Landis’s collapse on the climb to La Toussuire the day before — “Landis Out! — sparked in him a fire of anger. And the journalists and commentators who said Landis, though he had led the Tour for several days, lacked panache, the style that characterized the great Tour champions like Armstrong, Eddy Merckx, and Bernard Hinault. And the competitors who said Landis did not have a strong enough team around him to fend off the attacks of rivals.

You see, here’s what the French can’t seem to wrap their heads around, despite the constant examples we keep feeding them- to be successful at something one must have the convictions which contain loyalty, hard work and dedication. A concept which is completely and utterly foreign to them.
At the risk of sounding off like an over-zealous, truck driving, gun shootin’ , redneck- the simple fact of the matter is this:
We as Americans kick a shitload of ass.