Americans Win Two European Championships

JEFFREY BROWN: And with us is Ron Rapoport, sportswriter and regular commentator for National Public Radio's "Weekend Edition."

Ron, the tour's director called Landis' big comeback ride on Thursday "the best performance in the modern history of the tour." That's pretty high praise.

RON RAPOPORT, Sports Writer: Kind of gets your attention, Jeffrey, doesn't it, I imagine, saying a thing like that?

You know what I think though, part of it has to do with the fact that Landis had done so badly on one day and then he has one of this great, great days that they're calling the greatest in the history of circling the very next. Now, that's the kind of performance everybody can get behind, being awful one day and great the next. It's sort of instant redemption.

And I've got to tell you that I think there's another reason they're so excited, and that was, before the race began, there was this incredible indictment of drug use in that sport. And here is a sport that people really only pay attention to one week a year, and they're just getting ready for their big moment, and all of a sudden all anybody wants to talk about is drugs.

Along comes Landis. He has this wonderful victory, very exciting, and all of a sudden everybody is feeling good about bicycle racing again. So no wonder they're a little excited, I think.

JEFFREY BROWN: Tell us a little bit more about Floyd Landis and his background?

RON RAPOPORT: Well, he comes from Farmersburg, Pennsylvania, a Mennonite upbringing, no radio, no television, no alcohol, no caffeine. Jeffrey, when he first started riding, his parents had him ride in sweat pants because they thought shorts were unbecoming.

And to get into this kind of level, he literally had to run away from home, go to California, and start riding seriously. Now, his parents weren't very happy about it. They've gotten back together, and they're all one big, happy family now.

But not everybody in the community where he grew up is excited about it. They think that there's too much emphasis on the individual nature of the victory. It's not the kind of thing that he's been taught, and so there is a lot of getting used to what this all means in Farmersburg.

JEFFREY BROWN: Now, doing all this with this hip injury that I mentioned seems all the more remarkable. Do you know to what extent, if any, it affects his riding? And what's the talk about whether he's going to be able to come back after this and compete at this level?

RON RAPOPORT: Well, I think he put off the hip replacement surgery that he needs so he could ride in this race, so obviously he made a calculated decision. But you're right: He's had three four-inch screws inserted into his hip after the crash.

And he told his mother that lately -- he told reporters -- that he told his mother lately the screws are pushing against bone and muscle. So this is a young man in need of a serious operation. And it's a real testament to his ability to ride this way with that kind of injury, you bet.

JEFFREY BROWN: And what about another American winning there in Paris in France's great race? Is there any, oh, I don't know, resentment building?

RON RAPOPORT: I don't think so. You know, this is something different. Lance Armstrong was such a machine when he won these races, it was sort of a given, where as Norris (sic), you know, had this bad time and this good time. And everybody kind of really is enjoying the way he won the race.

But, Jeffrey, I've got to tell you that this is the most drug-addled sport there is, and it's not going to be long before somebody accuses Floyd Norris (sic) of having taken drugs just the way they accuse Lance Armstrong and everybody else who's ever won the Tour de France.

You wait and see. He's going to be facing some of the same charges, too. It's just the nature of bicycle racing at this level, I'm afraid.

JEFFREY BROWN: All right. Well, let's now move to our other big sports story. This one was just across the English Channel.

With this last short putt for par, Tiger Woods won his third British Open Sunday.

ANNOUNCER: Tiger Woods is back in the winner's circle at the majors!

JEFFREY BROWN: It was his 11th major golf championship, but an especially emotional one for the 30-year-old, his first since the death of his father, Earl Woods, to cancer nearly three months ago.

TIGER WOODS, Golfer: I guess it's a bunch of emotions that came pouring out from what we've had to deal with as a family. And some of those things, I just wish, you know, Dad could have been here.

JEFFREY BROWN: Just last month, Woods had suffered an embarrassing elimination at the U.S. Open. But in Britain, on a course just outside Liverpool, Woods led most of the way, playing steadily with few mistakes and brilliant shots along the way.

Woods became the first golfer in nearly a quarter-century to win back-to-back British Opens.

JEFFREY BROWN: Now, Ron, Tiger Woods is a famously cool customer, so a little unusual to see him break down like that.

RON RAPOPORT: Well, Jeffrey, we saw something we've seen many times before, Tiger Woods winning a major golf tournament in just a ruthless, relentless fashion. And we've seen something we never saw before: breaking down and crying.

Not shedding a tear, not at the emotion of it all, not just, "You know, thank you, Dad, and so on," but wracking, relentless kinds of sobs as he collapsed into the arms of, first, his caddy and then his wife. That's something we've never seen before, because Tiger has always been in such control of his game on the golf course and his emotions off it, and to see him react this way was really quite a remarkable sight, I think.

JEFFREY BROWN: Tell us about this relentless nature of his game. Because that is the one, that is the way he won this one, the way he's won others, with that steady kind of wearing-everybody-down approach, right?

RON RAPOPORT: Well, it's more than that, really. I mean, on the 13th hole, Chris DiMarco made a birdie to get within one hole of -- within one shot of Tiger. And now we're on the back nine of a major golf tournament, which is a time when champions famously come undone, when championships are lost as often as they are won.

We only have to think back to what Phil Mickelson did at the Masters, the way he simply just blew it on the last few holes. Tiger's response to DiMarco's birdie coming within one stroke? He just birdied the 14th, birdied the 15th, had a three-shot lead with three holes to go, and said, "See you later."

I mean, it was just vintage Tiger. Remarkable that he could just turn it on at that moment and turn a close golf tournament into a victory march for himself.

JEFFREY BROWN: Well, in fact, it was, as we said in our set-up, it was just a month ago that he failed to make the cut at the U.S. Open, which was remarkable in itself. Every golfer I know talks as much about the psychology as anything else of the game. How does he turn it around so quickly?

RON RAPOPORT: Well, Tiger's just a very, very focused individual. I haven't seen anybody since Michael Jordan who could exert that kind of force of will, determine what needed to be done, and then just go out and do it.

And, yes, he didn't make the cut at the Open, and he didn't win the Masters, but golf is a game of losing. Golf is a game that the greatest champions, Tiger included, lose more often than they win. And yet here he is. He just came back a month later after not making the cut at the Open, and he just made this tournament his own.

It was just a remarkable expression of that force of will that he exhibits like no other athlete on the stage today.