FROM AP --After an arduous 20 stages, Floyd Landis vaulted into the annals of cycling lore with Sunday’s win in the 103rd Tour, crowning a stunning comeback. All but written off after cracking in the final climb last Wednesday, the Phonak team leader managed a stunning rebound on Thursday on the the last mountain stage, pedaling like a madman to move up from 11th to third (only 30 seconds behind the yellow jersey) to put himself back in contention.

“It was the Hail Mary pass,” Floyd Landis said. “To my way of thinking, 11th place was the same as 80th place — I didn’t care, I wanted to win, so I took a risk.” In Saturday’s final time trial, Landis finished third but outpaced race leader Oscar Pereiro of Spain to gain a 59-second advantage and reclaim the race leader’s yellow jersey and win the Tour de France.

I am a Tour de France nut and a Christian on a continuous journey to grow in my relationship with Christ and to glorify him in everything I do. So having spent the good part of three weeks watching with complete fascination at the punishment, tactics and final bursts to win a stage, I sit back and realize there are many lessons one can learn from the Tour de France.

What lessons as Christians can we learn from such a spectacle, such as test of endurance…more than 2,200 miles of pounding pavement?

The first lesson is that there is the long road ahead. Most of the stages of the Tour de France were 100+ miles each day — day after day, up mountains and the pain of the climb, other times descending the mountain with complete exhilaration, then other times long stretches of nothing.

Learning who Jesus is and what He did for us is like getting to the starters booth for the prologue…..but the Christian life is a long road, filled with highs and lows and long dry stretches. Each day we need to crawl off after the long day and get massaged, filled with nourishment (time in the Word), talk to the coach (Prayer) and map out a plan for the next day. We need to pace ourselves and we need to have balance so that we don’t fizzle out early — we need to run the race set before us…..

Soft-spoken Floyd Landis let his heart, courage and legs do the talking in the final time trial, know as the “Race of Truth”, and came out a winner, gaining 59 seconds on his friend and old teammate, Oscar Pereiro. And with the herculean effort on stage 17, (see this writeup), Floyd Landis has exploded into the living rooms of millions of Tour de France viewers as the next American hero.

I watched with baited breathed today to see if Floyd could do it and he did not disappoint! Tomorrow’s ride will be bittersweet for Landis, who will have complete hip replacement surgery in three weeks.

Vivas le Landis and Vivi Le Tour!

Floyd Landis’ Miracle 17th stage Effort on YouTube

The Tour de France proved today it remains unpredictable and one of the world’s great sporting events. Today’s stage 16 — 120 miles with tortious mountain climbs — witnessed the agony and the ecstasy of high athletic drama. The agony was wrapped up in the bonk of Floyd Landis, who went into today wearing the maillot jaune. Landis bonked with 2.5 miles to go, falling out of the peloton and eventually finishing an astonishing 10:04 behind Rasmussen. This has now left our great American hope in 11th place in the GC, more than 8 minutes behind Oscar Pereiro, who regained the yellow jersey. I could not believe my eyes as I watched Landis just drift off — I kept yelling “Floyd — just finish strong and live for tomorrow!” — but somewhere along the way, he ran out of energy and with that, probably dashed his hope for the title

What can possibly happen after this? I am not sure how much my heart can take — we now have had eight different leaders in 16 stages. But I fear the Americans are off the podium….can Floyd make up 8:08? Can Levi Leipheimer finish strong on tomorrow’s stage and move up from 9th?…Hold onto your seats folks!