Hey Frenchie: Check It Out!

Yes, another damnable American won the Tour de France for the 8th time in a row today!

Congratulations to Floyd Landis, who won the three-week long Tour de France, and acquired his first Yellow Jersey.

This is the 8th time an American has won the Tour, after the incredible Lance Armstrong won a record 7 years in a row, his final win occurring in 2005.

Landis, 31, is 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.

The French, of course, said Landis "lacked panache, the style that characterized the great Tour champions like Lance Armstrong, Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault." Headline writers at a French newspaper decided to write "Landis Out!" when he collapsed on the climb to La Toussuire -- and it flat pissed him off. Competitors also said Landis didn't have a strong enough team around him to fend off the attacks of rivals.

That pissed him off too.

So what did you learn, France and World?

Never, NEVER underestimate America.

You do so at your own peril.

BZ