Transcend Adversity [BIKE/SPLIT]

I write this on the eve of Floyd Landis' spectacular 2006 Tour de France win. After reading an article about his debilitating arthritic hip condition, it seems all three TdF winners from the US had to transcend some type of challenge before they took the win. Is there a relationship between overcoming adversity and superior sports performance?

For me it's been the most compelling Tour ever. The predictable tactics of Lance and the USPS, then Discovery Team over the last 7 years took the excitement out of The Tour. I knew how exactly each stage would progress. The only variables were the other protagonists from year-to-year adding interest.

Early on in this year's Tour it seemed there were 10 possible winners, then the climbs brought the contenders to the top of the results page—of which Floyd was a favorite. Then while appearing to be totally in control Floyd bonks with 11k from a mountaintop finish, losing 10-minutes. His chance to win is over, but I want him to win so I consider the incredibly slim odds anyway. I doubt anyone but Floyd thought he could recover. Then in one of the greatest rides ever he solos for 130k to pull back all but 30 seconds of time he lost the day before. Then he just has to do his thing in the last TT and The Tour is his. The TT goes as planned. Happy ending*.

All three US winners of The Tour (Lemond, Armstrong, and Landis) have something in common—they dealt with adversity before their win. In Floyd's case he worked with adversity in the form of an arthritic hip for almost 2 years leading up to and during the 2006 TdF. We would never know until he made it public knowledge, and of course this was his intent.

Elite level athletes deal with adversity calmly. Some get used to coping with so many day-to-day aches and pains that they just train through. There have been times when I forgot about an ongoing problem, taking it as the norm. On the positive side, dealing with minor injuries without drama lets us focus on the big picture—training consistently and performing when it counts. The danger is that we cause damage when we should be stepping back, taking time to fix the problem.

It's been said many times: "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." And, when you take something away it intensifies appreciation of what you've lost. Taking health, physical ability, and the opportunity to choose our destiny for granted leads to complacency.

Transcending adversity seems to be the driver behind many athletes who bring their efforts up to a new level. The physical ability was probably always there, but the mental side was not as strong until subjected to loss.

Could Floyd have found the motivation and energy for the dominating solo ride that won him The Tour without the catalyst of failure the day before? I doubt it.

*And if you've followed the news you know it's not a happy ending. Is Floyd guilty of taking steroids? I don't know. He didn't test positive on other days of The Tour so why on his race-winning day in The Alps? Is there a way of administering a single-day boost of testosterone? Were there masking drugs that failed that one day? Again, I don't know. If he has a naturally high ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone, why hasn't it been an issue in testing before? Significant variation from baseline values are extremely rare without synthetic input.

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