Word: tours
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...could be a tale out of the Lance Armstrong chronicles. Lewis is years away from competing in a Tour de France, and he may never rise to the mythological heights of his racing hero, who entered the final week of his last Tour poised to win a seventh straight title. But inspired by the cancer survivor's drive to overcome any obstacle and dominate the Eurocentric sport of cycling, Lewis and his once wrecked body are part of the most motivated--and talented--crop of riders the U.S. has ever known. At one point in this year's Tour, five...
...former Armstrong lieutenants, desperate to escape his mountainous shadow, could soon reach the Champs Elysées podium. Floyd Landis, 29, who was never even allowed to race a bike as a kid, stood sixth overall through 14 stages (out of 21) in this year's Tour. He grew up without a television or radio in a Mennonite household in Pennsylvania, and he needed permission from a pastor to wear racing tights in public. Landis still won't conform. After riding shotgun for Armstrong on the U.S. Postal team for the past three Tours, he jumped to the Swiss Phonack squad...
...saddle, its distance from the handlebars. He can drive the tech guys crazy. "I've seen him argue for 15 minutes about a difference of one and a half millimeters," says Gerolsteiner spokesman Jörg Grünefeld. Leipheimer's approach is clearly working; he reached fifth place entering the Tour's final week...
Rounding out the new crop is Dave Zabriskie, 25, who this year became only the third American ever to lead the Tour--before a crash ended his run. But promising stars like Zabriskie, who looks so young he ought to have a bell on his cycle, probably won't ever compare with the man who inspired millions of fans to wear yellow Livestrong bracelets. "It's a bit frightening," says Ian MacGregor, the reigning under-23 U.S. road-racing champion, of Armstrong's retirement. "Cyclists know there's more to the sport than Lance Armstrong. I don't know...
...still searching for its lost panache seven years after Michael Jordan's retirement, will cycling ever recover from Armstrong's? Paradoxically, new blood could help the sport, assuming the new guys can avoid run-ins with SUVs. "Believe me, I'm a Lance fan, but to be honest, the Tour de France has gotten kind of boring," says former U.S. Postal rider Jonathan Vaughters. "I think it will be much more spectacular with more competition." Don't worry, Generation Lance is climbing. --With reporting by James Graff and Mikael Holter/Paris and Tala Skari/Montpellier