Nathan: The only think I hope for is that, with perhaps a greater public awareness of cycling, drivers will be less inclined to run me off the road when I'm out on my bike.

King:That would be nice. Hard to picture the feeling carrying over, though. Is anybody else like me? When I'm on a bike, I look at the car drivers and think, "Give me some room, you jerk! Can't you wait one second and not kill me?" And yet, when I'm in my car, I'm all, "Get out of my &$#! way, bike rider ..."

Just me?

I am sure it is not just you, though I tend to have that reaction more for pedestrians.

Personally, when I am cycling I am more often annoyed by people who give me too much room on country roads. There's no need to give me a entire lane to pass, a couple of feet would be fine. I am always afraid that people who cross into the other lane will get hit by an oncoming car, and I'll be collateral damage.

Perry,

King can't write about everything. Landis's ride was awe inspiring, but it really doesn't translate that well to print (as you will see below). It is too bad his ride didn't get more coverage, but that's the way it is.

With that said, watching that ride last night is the most fun I have had watching sports all year. I stayed up much too late watching it last night.

The drama was intense. At the beginning of OLN's coverage I was struck by how well in his press conference Landis took his horrendous day on Wednesday. He didn't have to answer questions, but he did cheerfully and without trying to shift the blame.

Then, we he took off alone near the beginning of the stage Thursday, I didn't think that the leaders would let him go. Then when it was clear that they would let him go, I didn't think that he would be able to stay away. But he did and with almost no help from any of the other riders. In fact he pulled a teammate of one of the other leaders up most of the climbs.

It was an amazing performance, especially in light of his amazing crack the day before. Landis has set himself well for the last few days of the tour. I hope that he can keep it together after that prodigous effort.

It could be Mark Kennedy - current Congressman from Minnesota, now running for Mark Dayton's vacant seat against Amy Klobuchar.

If it is Kennedy, he has gained a little respect from me. Up to this point he had not shown any signs of being capable of independent thought.

Interviews I have seen with Floyd's mom were already a little strained. It is not hard to imagine that there relationship is a bit complicated. If you reject your parents way of life and go off across the country to make a living in a way that they think is frivilous, a relationship can get a bit tense. Of course many people do that in college, but this is a bit more extreme of a case.

The whole Landis thing makes sick. I don't really believe him now, but I haven't completely given up hope. I was one who celebrated his great stage victory in this space a few weeks ago, and I can't quite let myself give that up. I believed Pete Rose for far too long as well.

Part of the reason I believed Floyd at first is because the whole thing didn't make any sense to me. Why would he dope with something like testosterone on the day he was going to try to win a stage? He knew that he would be tested if he won the stage.

Plus, why testosterone? Until I looked into it a little more I thought that testosterone was only good for building muscle mass over the long term. Why then would he dope with it on race day? Apparently it can give an energy boost as well. So at least there is a logical reason for Floyd having done it.

But how could Landis have been so stupid to have done this when he had to know he likely be caught? If he did it, then I would guess it was about pride. He had to make up for his poor performance the previous day, no matter the cost. Now it looks like that cost will include his reputation and quite possibly his career.

I still want to believe Floyd, but unfortunately I can't. And that sucks.

DavidN said:

On another point, the fact that none of Landis's other samples came back positive would seem to defeat his claim that the results were caused by nature. If his production level of testosterone were naturally high it would be found in every test.

This part of his argument isn't totally baseless. He put in an extreme effort over a long time period on that stage. It is at least plausible that his body could have reacted physiologically differently from how it reacts on a normal stage. It could then be argues that the effort he put into the long time trial stages should have been similar. The mountains in the stage he tested positive on and the length of time he was off on his own (or dragging that one other rider) make that stage a different beast. His cortisone shots for treating his hip problem are also another variable in the equation.

I don't buy that argument, but I can't completely discount it yet.