Last comments re TdF

Since I posted something about the comeback ride of Landis and didn’t follow up with the joy of his victory, let me wrap up the Tour de France (TdF) postings with two things.

First, it is interesting the press, notably the French press, is referring to Landis as a ‘champion’ (versus Lance Armstrong as a ‘winner’) and is generally heaping praise on him. It really isn’t too much of surprise considering the friction between L’Equipe, and the French media in general, and Armstrong. However, I’m sure something else in the equation is Phonak isn’t an American team…

Second, is this news from Eurosport.com (a channel you should watch the Tour, World Cup, and any other serious sporting event on instead of OLN / Versus or ESPN… the coverage is far superior):

Jan Ullrich is reportedly in talks with Discovery Channel after it emerged that the German will have one last pop at Tour de France glory. Ullrich was fired by his team T-Mobile last Friday following his implication in the recent Spanish doping scandal ‘Operacion Puerto’.

Where’s Vino? With Kloden without a contract but apparently with offers from other teams, will 2005’s T-Mobile be reconstituted on 2007 Discovery? Can the personalities mesh? I’ll leave that discussion to the experts in the field as my Calfee is simply collecting dust…