Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/americans-win-two-european-championships Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript The United States won two important European championships this weekend: the British Open and Tour de France. A sports writer and commentator for NPR discusses the two American wins. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JEFFREY BROWN: Two Americans, two countries, two sports, and two big victories. We begin in France.After years of cycling domination by Lance Armstrong, there was a new American in Paris, when Floyd Landis crossed the finish line yesterday to win his first Tour de France. FLOYD LANDIS, Tour de France Champion: Thank you, everybody who kept believing. And most of all, my team, when things weren't going so well, they kept fighting and never stopped believing. JEFFREY BROWN: It was a victory that almost wasn't. After a disastrous ride on Wednesday dropped Landis to 11th place, eight minutes behind Spaniard Oscar Pereiro, he made most of the time back with a remarkable climb through the Alps on Thursday. ANNOUNCER: Floyd Landis will win the Tour de France. JEFFREY BROWN: In the end, Landis won the grueling tour, three weeks and 2,257 miles, by a mere 57 seconds and brought a more positive kind of excitement to a race that began with a doping scandal that eliminated several top contenders.Adding to the feat, the 30-year-old Pennsylvania native had suffered a hip injury from a crash several years ago and will undergo replacement surgery this fall. FLOYD LANDIS: I don't feel like my life was a failure if I didn't win a race, but it was a dream. And I would be extremely disappointed if that was taken away by an unfortunate accident. JEFFREY BROWN: Landis became the third American to win the tour.