An American Is Winning the Tour de France

And his name's not Lance Armstrong. Rather, Floyd Landis, the only Mennonite in the peloton, took over the yellow jersey today after a five-mountain stage shredded the field, killed off an early breakaway, and separated the bicycles from the tricycles. Landis finished third on the stage (just behind Denis Menchov [Russia] in first and American Levi Leipheimer in second), but took enough time to move into first in the general classification. Yesterday's leader, Cyril Dessel of France, is now in second overall, eight seconds down.

There's lots of riding still to go, including some ridiculously difficult stages in the Alps, but how can you not root for Floyd? He's a funny-looking guy, and not without his eccentricities (as this article from the future shows) but he looks good in jaune.